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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT- 








































































































DARTING 

RAYS 























Darting Rays 

and 

Other Stories 

by 

Joseph Loeser 




Published in Milwaukee, November, 1924 
by 

The Author 



Copyright 1924 

by 

JOSEPH LOESER 



©C1A80782B 

NOV 14 


Read It 

Why write new stories 
in the old-fashioned 
way while everything 
else in this world is ad¬ 
vancing and adopting 
new styles ? This book 
contains a variety of 
stories written in new 
and different styles for 
the purpose of gratify¬ 
ing as much as possible 
the varying tastes of 
the readers. 

The Author 











CONTENTS 


I— Darting Rays; or Three Brides Who Ra¬ 

diated Charms . 1 

II— Hate at First Sight. 13 

III— The Picture in the Locket. 27 

IV— Sunshine and Darkness on the Hills and 

in the Valleys of Life. 43 

V—Heroism and Bravado. 55 

VI—Adventures and Lively Domestic Scenes.. 73 

VII—Married Man and His Typist. 85 

* 

VIII—In the Grove and Through a Secret Tun¬ 
nel at Midnight. 91 

IX— Thrilling Happenings and Hairbreadth Es¬ 

capes from Death. 107 

X— Brewster's Romantic Experiences. 125 

XI— A Journey Around the World. 131 

A FEW HUMOROUS SKETCHES 

XII— Hallucination . 159 

XIII— Donkey’s Eggs . 163 

XIV— The Irishman and the Big Swede. 167 

XV—Hansmichel Nixcomeraus, the Bully of the 

Town . 169 

XVI—Wells of Mirth and the Lost Glove. 173 



















Darting Rays 
or Radiating Charms 

AUL MILLER, a bright and intelli¬ 
gent man of Milwaukee, was neither 
young nor old. He had arrived at the 
zenith of manhood. He was tall, nearly six 
feet, well proportioned and handsome. 

No trace of evil could be seen in his 
cleancut features. His boyish looking face 
and clear eyes: showed that he had led a 
straightforward, honest life and shunned the 
temptations which so frequently lead youths 
astray. 

Although the flesh is weak and he had 
been tempted time and time again, which 
nearly made him fall one time, he had al¬ 
ways mastered himself. 

One day, in his office, Paul was introduced 
to Marsella, a Milwaukee beaufy who radi- 
l 






DARTING RAYS 

ated charm. Her eyes were wells of mirth. 
She was slight of figure, medium in height, 
standing erect, and her manner was slightly 
haughty. The lips of this stunning girl were 
red and arched into a cupid’s bow; her cheeks 
glowed with health and color. And the thing 
which instantly appealed to Paul was that 
the color was not of the artificial variety— 
but natural, natural as the red cheeks of an 
apple. 

Marsella and Paul went to places of 
amusement together for three years, such as 
theaters, concerts and dances. She was a 
very good dancer and loved to dance, but 
was mighty particular with whom. When¬ 
ever he was with her he felt her fine man¬ 
ners, her grace and charm; but it seemed 
that they were too much like brother and 
sister to become lovers. How silly! They 
had only their own differences to overcome 
to act naturally, but to him it then seemed 
to be an impassable gulf. They went about 
as children. She encouraged him to visit her 
and invited his confidences; and from the 
bottom of his heart he respected her as a 
dear friend. Finally she became very dear 
in his life, but he was bashful and timid, as 


2 


RADIATING CHARMS 

some men are, in their love affairs. They will 
look at the one little woman’s face that they 
love as we look at the face of our mother 
earth and see all sort of answers to their 
own yearnings. They see her like a bright¬ 
cheeked apple or peach hanging over the 
orchard wall within sight of everybody, and 
everybody must long for her, to be sure. 
But how could Paul know that Marsella 
really loved him if he was bashful and had 
not enough courage to dare ask her to be¬ 
come his loving wife? He knew that while 
he was hestitating, meditating and dreaming 
about her and building a pretty castle in the 
air without either bricks, stone, or lumber, 
some other man might step in and get pos¬ 
session of her. Therefore one day he got up 
enough courage to propose to Marsella and 
to tell her that he loved her dearly. They 
became engaged to be married in the near 
future. 

At that moment, as if by magic, a change 
came into their lives. The three years of 
their undisturbed friendship was disturbed 
now. Their three years of happy, peaceful 
companionship, courtship, and correspond¬ 
ence was disturbed and almost at an end. 


3 


DARTING RAYS 

As soon as they came together their promi¬ 
nent faults of character rubbed and they 
quarreled, which seemed as if it did not rest 
with them but rather with fate. They tried 
to control their actions, but their tempera¬ 
ments still led them in opposite directions. 
One night, after they had spent the evening 
at a masquerade ball, they decided it would 
be best to dissolve their engagement and part 
as friends. 

Knowing that he would be very miserable 
and lonely the next day without her com¬ 
panionship, Paul proposed a walk, to which 
she consented. When he called for her on 
Sunday afternoon, she received him with 
such a cold look that it chilled him to the 
bone and vexed him; but he thought it would 
wear off before the end of the walk. 

In the course of their long walk that 
young woman, inexperienced in life’s prob¬ 
lems but strong in the instincts of her sex, 
tortured him as only a woman can torture 
the man who loves and adores her. She 
drove needles and pins—pins and needles— 
thru his heart. She was peevish, and seem¬ 
ingly wrapped up in absent things. Not for 
bne moment was she herself. And so the 


4 


RADIATING CHARMS 

once happy pair walked along slowly, they 
scarcely knew where. At length they came 
towards her home. Paul, with drooping 
head, aching and sore of heart, felt that here 
their last walk together in this world must 
end. He bade her farewell and went away 
sad and sorrowful. It was dark day by day, 
for she had been the sunshine of his life. 
She had made an impression upon him not 
easily forgotten; but time never fails to cure 
such sorrows. Things that seem as big as a 
mountain now will look like a molehill in six 
months. In other words, why cry over a lost 
apple? It is soon found that there are many 
apples in the world as good as that one. It 
would be foolish for him to think of suicide, 
like a lovesick girl that is picked out of the 
river or lake alive. She would marry an¬ 
other man, have children and live happily. 
She would think of sweetheart No. 1 gen¬ 
erally as a blockhead and an all around 
good-for-nothing drunkard for whom she was 
foolish enough to wet her clothes, let alone 
killing her soul. 

Marsella was not so foolish as to jump in 
the lake, although, she had her share of sor- 


5 


DARTING RAYS 

row. This was expressed by her in a letter 
to Paul. The letter ran in part: 

“Dear Paul: If I say anything to pain 
you in this letter, do not believe it is from 
want of tenderness toward you, for there is 
nothing I would not do for you, if I knew it 
to be really for your happiness. It is very 
hard for me to part from you, dear Paul. 
Sweet as our love has been to me, sweet as 
it would be, I feel that it would have been 
better for us both if we had never had that 
happiness; but since the past cannot be al¬ 
tered, I feel it would be a great evil that we 
have the power to prevent if our affections 
continued so lixed on one another. I have 
been, and am now, unable to resist the long¬ 
ing to be near you. I am miserable while I 
write this, but since it is for the best and 
nothing else can be, we must try to think of 
each other as little as possible. I shall always 
care for you and always remember you, dear 
Paul. Try to forget everything about me 
except that I shall be, as long as I live, your 
true and affectionate friend, Marsella.” 

In the course of time Paul was convinced 
that it is not good for man to be alone, for 
his happiness was not complete. There was 


RADIATING CHARMS 

something missing. It was the love, affec¬ 
tion and companionship of a good woman in 
whom he could trust and confide. 

Although he had chances to acquire com¬ 
panions they were not of the right type. 
They proved to be of a type in which he 
could not confide, therefore he was skeptical 
until finally Charlotte, a young woman of 
especial goodness and charm, caused his 
doubts to vanish. 

As he had completely lost faith in long 
courtships, after a short acquaintance they 
were married in Milwaukee where they had 
their wedding breakfast all to themselves and 
later a honeymoon trip to the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, which gave them a great deal more joy 
and pleasure than a sumptuous wedding 
feast. 

While in the Rocky Mountains in the 
vicinity of Colorado Springs and Pike’s 
Peak, the honeymoon couple were nearly 
drowned like gophers in a hole. During a 
heavy rain storm a reservoir burst which sent 
the water down upon the cottage in which 
they were, like a flying lake and with terrific 
violence, whirling trees, houses, and every¬ 
thing in its path. They never expected to 
7 


DARTING RAYS 

live to tell the story, for it was a moment of 
great despair. A high wave swept into their 
rooms. As they did not care to be drowned, 
Paul made an opening in the ceiling with 
some tools which he found in their room, and 
hoisted himself through the opening into the 
attic and after pulling Charlotte up into the 
attic he cut a hole in the roof of the house 
and then hoisted himself on top of the roof. 
At that moment he heard despairing shrieks, 
which emanated from the next house, close 
to the one on whose roof he was perched. 
Paul climbed to the roof of the next house, 
hacked a hole in the roof and ceiling, calling 
to the inmates to give him their hands. In 
that manner he dragged 11 inmates, men, 
women and children up through the hole and 
then transferred them all to the roof of the 
other house, as their house began to rock in 
less time than it takes to tell. Their house 
tumbled to pieces and together with the con¬ 
tents, went floating by in the torrent of wa¬ 
ter. A few minutes later the boiling current 
went down as fast as it rose. Part of the 
wall of the house on which they were perched 
was washed out by the water, and it was 
miraculous that the house thus weakened and 


8 


RADIATING CHARMS 

the roof crowded with human beings had not 
fallen in. Finally the water receded, and 
Paul managed to get the others down from 
the roof by ladder. Although they found 
themselves in a layer of mud, some of them 
got down on their knees to thank God for 
their safe delivery, while others thanked 
Paul. Some of them put their arms around 
his neck and kissed him for saving their lives. 

Now the funniest and most surprising 
thing out was that Paul’s former sweetheart 
(Marsella) and her sister Irene happened to 
be among those who thanked and kissed him 
for saving their lives. Yes, unknown to Paul 
and his bride, Marsella and Irene had been 
married a few weeks previous and with their 
husbands likewise were enjoying a honey¬ 
moon trip, a tour through the Western 
States in their limousine. While the newly 
wedded couples were happily gazing upon 
the wonderful works of nature in the Rocky 
Mountains they were compelled to seek shel¬ 
ter in the house next door to where Mr. and 
Mrs. Miller were stopping during that heavy 
rainstorm mentioned before. Neither of the 
three couples had the slightest idea of meet¬ 
ing then and there. 


DARTING RAYS 

As one might guess Marsella as a bride 
looked more beautiful than ever, her face 
and sparkling eyes rayed out darting rays of 
charm and beauty. However, her sister 
Irene never had to take a back seat in regard 
to charm for she was every bit as sweet and 
pretty as Marsella was pictured out in the 
beginning of this story. In justice to Char¬ 
lotte and her husband a very short descrip¬ 
tion of her will be given. The name Char¬ 
lotte in itself is nice and sweet; its definition 
is something sweet, so naturally she must 
have been very attractive and pretty. She 
was tall and of perfect figure. 

Now, in order to make a long story short 
and not to slight either one of the three 
brides, who found themselves in a layer of 
mud which also bedecked part of their most 
beautiful and attractive gowns of satin and 
silks, after ridding themselves of the mud 
and arraying themselves anew and as they 
stood in the glory of their young womanhood 
each of the three bridegrooms undoubtedly 
thought that his bride was the most beauti¬ 
ful one among the three. Well, who would 
blame them? But a bystander said that at 
that moment as if by magic those brides 


10 


RADIATING CHARMS 

looked exactly alike. There was no differ¬ 
ence in the looks on their faces whatever. 
Perhaps the cause of this was that they were 
full of mirth, joy and happiness which was 
overflowing on their faces. In other words, 
their faces reflected their delight and happi¬ 
ness and made their cheeks glow with that 
one and the same bright, glorifying and fes¬ 
tivity color. Well, now, while those three 
brides with ray smiles stood face to face, 
their bright and rare eyes rayed out like 
darting rays. 


11 



Hate at First Sight 

TY Tom White had given up his easy 
and well paying job in a Milwaukee 
department store, he did not exactly 
know as he did not stop to analize his mo¬ 
tives. He simply heeded his desire, which he 
thought was a call to higher endeavor. Well, 
whatever it was it mattered little to him for 
he was young, hopeful and the picture of 
health and he was successful in his new job 
and future undertaking. 

He had read in the newspaper that a body 
of a young woman who had drowned in the 
lake while bathing, was still lying at the city 
morgue unidentified, and that both the press 
and police had failed in their investigation 
regarding her. All they had learned and 
knew about her was that she had rented 
rooms in an up-to-date apartment house near 



13 



DARTING RAYS 

the lake, a few days before she drowned. 
There were no clues to her identity whatever. 
The police could not find her trunk or any 
baggage except a suit case which contained 
a few garments. However, there were no 
marks on them or on any of her personal 
articles, which they found in her rooms. No 
one knew the young woman or where she 
came from. It seemed as if she had dropped 
down out of the clouds. 

These v'ere the facts in the case that had 
baffled the detective force and the press for 
the past week. A description of the young 
woman had been published in the newspapers 
but no one answered. It seemed as if the 
drowned woman at the morgue had no rela¬ 
tives, friends or acquaintances. 

Tom had never seen the inside of the 
morgue and he dreaded to look upon a dead 
person, but a child-like curiosity brought him 
there to look upon this homeless and friend¬ 
less young woman. And as he gazed upon 
her he saw that she was a beautiful girl; a 
brunette of not more than twenty summers, 
perhaps eighteen or nineteen. A strange 
feeling, a sort of pity took possession of him. 
He began to formulate a plan to solve the 


14 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

mystery regarding her, to learn more about 
her, and to find out if possible, her name and 
address; to locate her friends who by all ap¬ 
pearances must be wealthy and would not 
want her to be buried in Pottersfield. He 
went to the office of the attendant of the 
morgue and asked to see her clothes and per¬ 
mission to examine her suit case, which he 
searched with the greatest care. Among her 
clothes he found a key, evidently to her 
trunk. He put it in his pocket unobserved 
by the attendant. He also found one pair 
of ladies hose and two silk hose which were 
not mated. They were both black and looked 
very much alike and might have been taken 
for mates but Tom’s keen eyes observed that 
they were not mates. They even were made 
in two different factories. 

After writing everything useful, to solve 
that mystery, down in his note book he left 
the dreary place and for the next two hours 
walked the streets thinking very hard and re¬ 
peatedly asking himself, “Where is that 
trunk?” 

The only thing which remained to be 
done now was to find the girl’s trunk. First 
he asked himself, “Can it be in some other 


15 


DARTING RAYS 

apartment house from which she might have 
come to the one where her suit case was 
found by the police? Or can it be in some 
other rooming house or hotel ?” Finally after 
weighing those questions carefully, he 
thought that it would be more likely that the 
trunk, if she had one, would be in one of 
the railroad stations. Therefore he went to 
the Union Depot and asked for the baggage 
master, who was pointed out to him. He told 
him that he was in search of the dead girl’s 
trunk. Whereupon the baggage master 
asked, “Where is the check?” Tom said that 
he did not know; that it must perhaps have 
gotten lost. 

The two men went through the baggage- 
room to find the trunk whose lock would fit 
the key which Tom had found in the dead 
girl’s suit case. 

The search between the piles of trunks 
promised to be a few hour’s job. There was 
all kinds of baggage in those piles. Some 
were old fashioned tin trunks bound about 
with a long washline or rope. They were 
somewhat out of place among the most stylish 
and up-to-date trunks. 

The men moved all the baggage and tried 


16 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

to insert the key into the locks hut to their 
great disappointment the key did not fit any 
of the locks. 

Tom then went to the Chicago North 
Western Depot where he finally found the 
girl’s trunk underneath a large pile. 

In the presence of two baggage men he 
unlocked the up-to-date trunk. He lifted the 
lid and among some clothes he found two silk 
stockings which proved to be the mates to 
those unmated stockings which he had found 
in the suit case at the morgue. He also found 
a little notebook which revealed the girl’s 
and her parent’s name and address in Sacra¬ 
mento, Calif. They were prominent and 
wealthy people. Tom immediately notified 
the parents of their daughter’s death. 

That night Tom went to his lodging place 
a tired man but a very happy one for he had 
done a great thing, in which he showed his 
cleverness, ability and good work in solving 
the most hopeless case. It made him feel 
very big and proud. It encouraged him so 
that he was very anxious to do more secret 
service work in the near future. 

He did not have to wait long for a chance 
for the very next night at about 10:30 P. M., 
17 


DARTING RAYS 

while he was walking toward his lodging 
place, all was quiet, the street seemed to be 
deserted, but all of a sudden he saw a man 
who was moving along at a slow pace. When 
Tom passed him, he gave him a look so ugly, 
which was enough to scare a lion. There was 
murder in his eyes. He was a sort of a man 
that is not easy to describe. There was 
something wrong with his appearance; some¬ 
thing downright detestable. Tom had taken 
a loathing to him at first sight, and yet he 
scarcely knew why. He was deformed some¬ 
where, although Tom could not tell just 
where. He was such an extraordinary look¬ 
ing figure; it struck him that it must be some 
makeup, some disguise. Tom crossed the 
street and at the same distance followed the 
man for several blocks. Finally he saw him 
draw a key from his pocket like one ap¬ 
proaching home. He unlocked a door and 
went into a house. From that night on Tom 
began to hunt the house at any spare time, 
and at all hours of the day and night. At 
last his patience was rewarded. It was on a 
dark, foggy night and the streets were all 
empty. He had been some minutes at his 
post, when he saw his man appear on the 


18 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

street from the house which he had been 
hunting for days. His appearance was the 
same as described before. If ever he read 
satan’s signature upon a face, it was on that 
of his new acquaintance. Tom followed and 
shadowed him for some time, finally he 
turned into Astor Street, where he disap¬ 
peared in the shadow among the large 
houses. 

On the fourth, a fine clear night, he had 
been at his post for some time, when he 
heard footsteps coming near, which he recog¬ 
nized as the steps of his man. As they came 
nearer and echoed out louder, Tom noticed, 
to his surprise, that the man’s appearance 
was altogether a contrast of his former ap¬ 
pearance, and yet, there was a rather singular 
resemblance. His attention had never be¬ 
fore been so sharply and decisively arrested, 
and v/ith a strong premonition of success, he 
told himself that this man was the one whom 
he was looking for. But this man passed the 
house which he was shadowing and entered 
into the house next door. Two days later, 
about 1 A. M., Tom saw a cab halt in front of 
the house. The strange, ugly looking man 
stepped out, carrying a 14-year-old girl who 


19 


DARTING RAYS 

seemed to be drugged, into the house. Tom 
immediately notified the police. The patrol 
arrived, and as there was no response to their 
knocks at the door, they broke it down and 
entered. The house was dark and deserted. 
It looked as if it had been vacant for years. 
There was not a living soul to be found. There 
was no furniture of any kind, but there were 
curtains and shades on the windows, which 
had fooled Tom. It made him believe that 
the house was inhabited, when it was not. 
The policemen went away feeling sore at him, 
because they thought he had played a joke 
on them. Tom went and armed himself with 
a revolver, a searchlight and with all kinds 
of keys. He entered the vacant house. He 
was quite certain that there was a secret door 
and a passage leading from that house to the 
one next to it, into which he had once seen 
that mysterious man enter. Therefore, Tom 
first searched the walls on the side towards 
the house next door for a secret door, but 
without any success. Then he searched the 
floor and finally he found the secret door, 
which he opened after some hard work. There 
were some steps leading down to a dark pas¬ 
sage. He followed the tunnel which led him 


20 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

direct to the house next door. At the end of 
the tunnel he found another secret door, 
which led him into a dark closet. There was 
a door in the closet leading into a large hall, 
from which there were several doors leading 
into different rooms. He unlocked a door 
with one of his keys; the room was an un¬ 
occupied bed chamber. He unlocked another 
door, where he found the young girl whom he 
had seen carried in the house by that ugly 
mysterious man. She was unconscious and 
partly undressed. Tom found some water 
with which he brought her back to conscious¬ 
ness. As she opened her eyes she said: 
“Where am I?” Tom said: “In an enemy’s 
house, but I am your friend and will take you 
away from here.” He found her clothes, and 
while she was dressing herself he tried to 
open one of the outside doors, but they would 
not yield, so he had to take the girl out of the 
house the same way he had come in. He 
called a cab and had the girl taken home. 
Then he went to police headquarters, where 
he reported the case, which led to the arrest 
of the mysterious man, who was one of the 
worst criminals known and wanted by the po¬ 
lice for numerous crimes, such as murder, 


21 


DARTING RAYS 

robbery and kidnapping young girls. The 
police had never been able to lay their hands 
on him heretofore, because he was himself a 
born detective and possessed to a marvelous 
degree the art of disguising himself. 

The police had not learned his name as he 
refused to divulge it. He was so cunning 
and slippery that he even slipped away from 
them after they had him in the iron cell. One 
morning, a few days after this mysterious 
man had been arrested, he told the man on 
guard that he was ready to make a clean 
breast of it all to the police, and that he 
wished to make a confession first to a priest. 
His wish was granted and an elderly priest 
was ushered into the prisoner’s cell. While 
the priest was getting ready for the criminal’s 
confession, the guard who did not wish to 
interfere nor hear the confession, retired to 
the farthest end of the station. This was just 
exactly what the prisoner’s heart, if he had 
one, desired. He immediately assaulted the 
priest, overpowered him, strangled him into 
insensibility and then donned the priest’s 
clothing. Thus disguised he found no trou¬ 
ble in getting out of the station and making 
his escape. 


22 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

Tom's next experience was also in the 
criminal line but of another fashion. In this 
case there was no work for him to do, as the 
criminal came to him, confessed his crime and 
later judged and sentenced himself. 

Nov/, dear reader, kindly keep on reading 
and learn how it was done. 

On a beautiful summer’s day in July, 
after a few pleasant hours on the shore of 
Lake Michigan, at the place which is called 
South Shore Park, while the sun had set be¬ 
hind a bank of clouds and only a faint yellow 
light was giving its farewell kisses to the 
waves, which were agitated by an active 
breeze, Tom was sauntering slowly along 
the beach when he observed a small sailing- 
boat advancing landward. When the boat 
was pulled to shore, he saw a man whom he 
knew by first name as Henry. Henry had 
risen from the bottom of the boat shivering 
and wet, and pale as death. There was a wild 
look in his eyes as if he had waked up in a 
world where some judgment was impending, 
and as if the groups of people he saw around 
him had come to seize him. Suddenly Henry’s 
wandering eyes fell on Tom, standing near 
him. He stretched out his arm toward him 


23 


DARTING RAYS 

saying, “My wife is dead; she drowned while 
they were out on the lake.” Tom then got 
the statement of the fishermen who had 
rescued Henry. They said that the woman 
had been knocked overboard by the flapping 
of the sail while moving about, and that 
while they were hastening toward the woman 
in distress in the water, they saw Henry jump 
in after his wife. Henry beseeched Tom to 
come with him to his home where he wanted 
to tell him something. Arriving at his home, 
Henry said, “I am a guilty man. Yes, her face 
will not be seen above the water again,” 
while he held both hands clenched. “No, not 
by any one else—only by me. A dead face! 
I shall never get away from it.” It seemed 
that he spoke these last words with an in¬ 
ward voice of desperate self-repression. Then 
he continued, “I must tell you; I must con¬ 
fess it to some one. I have, of late, felt a 
hatred in me that was always working like 
an evil spirit, contriving things—everything 
that I could do to free myself from my wife. 
It got worse and worse, and I wished her 
dead. The desire to kill her was as strong as 
thirst; but I felt beforehand as if I had done 
something dreadful that would make me like 


24 


HATE AT FIRST SIGHT 

an evil spirit. I have killed her, for I saw her 
fall overboard and I had the rope in my hand 
when she came above the water and cried for 
help; but I said, “Die” and did not throw her 
the rope. But when she sank and did not 
come above the water any more, then I felt 
how wicked I am and that I am lost. I would 
have saved her then. I leaped after her into 
the water, but it was too late; she was dead 
and I am guilty of murder, which can never 
be altered.” Tom could not utter one word 
after Henry’s confession. He rose and left 
Henry in his remorse and inward guilt. The 
next day Henry drowned himself in the Mil¬ 
waukee River. 

The pang, the curse with which he died 
Will never pass away; 

He could not draw his eyes from hers 
Nor lift them up to pray. 

Such is life; too many people are never 
satisfied. Some even do not know when they 
have a good thing—they do not appreciate 
it until it is dead or gone. 


25 








































































































" 
























































































































































The Picture in the Locket 

RED, a farmer’s son, near Milwaukee, 
one morning while visiting in the said 
city, was reading a daily newspaper 
when he saw something that drew his atten¬ 
tion: “Man wanted, who is not afraid of 
thorobred, spirited horses.” He loved horses, 
and he said to himself, “I have not seen a 
horse yet of which I would be afraid.” He 
was not looking for a job, but he was looking 
for excitement and adventure; and it looked 
to him as if there might be some adventure 
attached to that job. So he went to the ad¬ 
dress given in the paper, somewhere on one 
of the finest residential streets in the city. He 
was surprised when he saw the large, mag¬ 
nificent house and barn. He stalked up to 
the front door and rang the bell. A little 
maid opened the door. He said that he 



27 





DARTING RAYS 

wished to see the boss. The maid said that 
Mr. (who does not want his name published) 
was in the barn. Fred went to the barn where 
he introduced himself to the boss and told 
him his errand. The man asked him if he 
had any references or recommendations. He 
said, “No, my face is my only reference and 
recommendation.” The man then searched 
him to the very heart with his large brown 
eyes, saying, “You look good to me.” Fred’s 
frank smile forced a smile from the other 
man, who then proceeded to show his four 
thorobred horses to Fred, which were used 
for riding purposes. * * * While Mr. So-and- 
So was showing Major—a big black beauty 
that no one had ever ridden with any success 
—to Fred, he said that Major was vicious and 
would run away and that no man ever could 
stay on his back and hold him. Fred asked 
for permission to ride Major. He got the 
permission with the understanding that he 
would take his own chances and run his own 
risk, which might cost his life. He asked the 
stable boy to bring Major’s bridle, and when 
he gave it to him he whispered, “Mr., do not 
ride him; he broke the last man’s neck that 


28 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

tried to ride him.” But Fred had made up 
his mind to ride Major. He placed the bit in 
his mouth, examined the saddle and threw it 
over his back, tightened up the belly band, 
led him into the yard and leaped into the 
saddle. Fred started him on a trot, but Major 
wanted to gallop. “Well, gallop then,” he 
said, “and faster than you ever did in your 
life.” With this he spurred the horse. The 
black rascal snorted with amazement at 
the spur and with warlike delight at finding 
grass beneath his feet and fresh air, which he 
had not enjoyed in months, whistling around 
his ears, he gave a gigantic bound, like a 
buck, with arched back and with all four legs 
in the air at once. With ears laid back, he 
was flying like a bird over hedges and fences. 
He hurled himself across lawns and gardens 
and later, out in the country, across ditches 
and brooks like a stone from a sling. With 
dilating nostrils he took everything in his 
stride, until they came suddenly to a very 
high rail fence. To clear it was impossible. 
They went straight into it and thru it like 
mad, and on again thru field and meadow till 
Fred found himself, he scarce knew how, on 


29 


DARTING RAYS 

a road which led to the animal’s home. There 
Major fell into a trot; he was mastered. After 
that Fred put him thru several maneuvers 
without any trouble whatever. His back 
looked as though he had been in Lake Michi¬ 
gan and his belly was stained with half a 
dozen different kinds of soil. 

Long before he reached home he was 
glad to walk. As they arrived at Major’s 
home, his owner and the whole family 
came out of the house and gazed at them in 
amazement. The man offered Fred $100 a 
week if he would stay. He thought that 
would be easy money, and as his business was 
not very urgent just then, he consented to 
stay at least for one week. He had to take 
a ride every day mounted on Major, who was 
as tame as a sheep. The young daughter of 
the house, whose name was Isabel, rode with 
him on her horse, which was like a lamb. 
Isabel was a lovely, very pretty, bright and 
charming young woman. She was called the 
beauty of the town. 

One day as Isabel and Fred were riding 
thru a grove, a branch from a tree caught the 
string of beads around Isabel’s neck. A 


30 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

locket leaped out from under her dress and 
at the same moment the string was broken. 
Locket and beads were scattered on the 
ground. “My locket, my locket,” she cried. 
Fred had already seen where the locket had 
fallen because it attracted his attention when 
it leaped out of her dress. As he picked it 
up, he saw the glass with a lock of light hair 
and a picture under it. It had fallen that 
side up. As he held the locket toward her, 
he could see that she was very much fright¬ 
ened about it. A puzzled alarm took posses¬ 
sion of him. He feared that there was some¬ 
thing in Isabel’s life that she did not want 
him, or any one, to know. The picture in the 
locket was of a young man, and a little bird 
whispered to him that it was of a secret lover. 

The very same evening Fred met the man 
whose picture he had seen in Isabel’s locket. 
He introduced himself to Fred as a Mr. David 
of Chicago. The next night he saw David 
with two more men sneaking around the 
house. He said to himself, “I will play the 
part of a detective, and there will be some 
adventures for me.” In the shade of the trees 
and of the house, he got near the three men. 

31 


DARTING RAYS 

He heard David say that he would bribe Fred 
to help them to get in the house, kidnap Isa¬ 
bel, and rob the house of its jewelry and 
diamonds and everything of value. Fred 
thought “Not as long as I am around. ,, Two 
days later, when Isabel and Fred were taking 
their daily ride in a grove a short distance 
from the city, Isabel dismounted and said that 
he could stay with the horses while she would 
explore the grove on foot. After she had 
been gone for a long time, he felt rather un¬ 
easy about her, so he hitched the horses to 
a tree and went in search of her. Strolling 
thru the woods, he could not help pausing 
to look at some curious trees. While he was 
thus engaged, his eyes fell on something 
which he could not forget for a long time. 
He saw Isabel standing opposite Mr. David 
of Chicago, with clasped hands, about to part, 
and while he bent to kiss her, there was a 
shrill whistle. They separated with a start. 
Isabel hurried thru the woods toward the 
horses and David walked slowly toward him, 
who stood motionless, looking at the ap¬ 
proaching figure. He told himself that he 
would speak the right thing to David. “Well,” 
32 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

David said to him, “I overtook the pretty lit¬ 
tle Miss Isabel as I was coming thru the 
grove and I had a little chat with her and then 
kissed her goodbye, but I must get home 
now,” and walked on. “Stop,” said Fred in 
a hoarse voice. “I must have a word with 
you. You cannot deceive me. This is not 
the first time you have met Isabel here in 
the woods, and this is not the first time you 
have kissed her.” 

David replied in a harsh voice, “Well, 
what of it?” 

“It means that you have been acting 
the part of a selfish, light-minded scoundrel. 
You know very well what it leads to when a 
man kisses and makes love to a young woman 
like Isabel.” “I tell you, Fred,” said David, 
“you are talking nonsense. Every pretty girl 
is not such a fool as you, to suppose that 
when a man admires her beauty and pays her 
a little attention that he must mean some¬ 
thing particular. Every man likes to flirt 
with a pretty girl, and every girl likes to be 
flirted with.” “So you have been behaving 
to.a girl of good character as if you loved 
her, and yet you did not love her, as you say 


33 


DARTING RAYS 

that you only meant to flirt with her,” Fred 
continued. “That is not the action of an 
honest man, and what is not honest will lead 
to harm.” “Well, perhaps I have gone too 
far in taking notice of the pretty creature, 
but let us say goodbye and say no more about 
it and it will soon be forgotten ” “No, it will 
not so soon be forgotten,” said he. “David, 
you are a crook, a coward and a scoundrel. 
I despise you,” said he as they stood face to 
face. David then dealt Fred a blow on his 
head which sent him staggering backward, 
but he recovered instantly and the two men 
fought with the fierceness of panthers. The 
struggle lasted for some time and until David 
was sinking under a well planted blow of 
Fred’s. He stood still, waiting for David to 
rise; but time passed and he did not rise. 
He began to shudder. He lifted David’s 
head; there was no sign of life. The horror 
that rushed over him will be in his memory 
as long as he lives. He hurried to a creek, 
got some water and soused it on David’s 
head, which gradually brought him back to 
consciousness. Just then Isabel came back 
again. “What does this mean?” she asked, 


34 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

looking at David lying there so still and look¬ 
ing as pale as death. David would not speak; 
but Fred told Isabel that David did not love 
her, that he merely meant to flirt with her, 
and that he was a crook—a thief, a robber 
and perhaps a murderer. He told her of the 
conversation he had overheard two nights 
previous when David and two of his associ¬ 
ates were planning to rob her father's house. 
Isabel then asked David whether he was 
guilty of all those accusations. David, in a 
feeble voiced, answered, “I am guilty dear 
Isabel, forgive me if you can.” Isabel then 
took the locket and David’s picture (which 
she had been carrying on her breast), threw 
it in his face, and walked away. David also 
turned and left, and that was the last that he 
was ever seen or heard of. 

The last day of Fred’s stay with Isabel 
and her father as their servant, she took a 
notion to ride Major. “Pardon me, Miss 
Isabel,” said he, “I am very sorry that you 
wish to ride Major. He is not a lady’s horse. 
He will bolt. He will run away, for you are 
not strong enough to hold him.” But she 
would not listen. She was determined to 
ride him. So they went forth, Isabel mounted 


35 


DARTING RAYS 

on Major, and Fred on another thorobred. 
During the first half hour Major behaved all 
right; nothing happened. They cantered; 
they trotted. But after that he slowly but 
steadily drew down on the reins and finally 
down went his head where he wanted it and 
he was running away, nobody knew where. 
Fred was struck with horror; but the same 
moment his horse shot forward so swiftly 
that the distance between the two horses 
soon began to lessen. All that the girl could 
do now was to hold on to the horn of the 
saddle and let him run wherever he pleased. 
He thundered past several trucks within a 
few inches of them, which made Fred’s heart 
shiver. Major threw so much dust and fine 
stones in his face and eyes that he could 
hardly see, but foot by foot he was gaining 
on them and finally, after a three-mile race, 
he was alongside of the runaway. He leaned 
across to place his arm around her waist. 
He shouted and gave orders to Isabel now 
as if he were the master and she the servant. 
She heard him and was glad to obey. She 
let loose of the saddle with hands and feet, 
and instantly her arms were wound around 
Fred’s neck and Major was freed of his bur- 
36 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

den. But now came the hardest part of it 
all—to hold the young woman in one arm 
and to slow down his horse with the other. 
The horse wanted to keep right on after 
Major, but Fred managed to stop him. The 
young woman slid to the ground, faint; but 
he snatched one of her arms in time to pre¬ 
vent her falling. He carried her to one side 
of the road, where she recovered her con¬ 
sciousness. As she was looking about, think¬ 
ing and wondering where she was and what 
had happened, her eyes met those of Fred’s, 
who stood watching her and anxiously 
awaited her recovery. Isabel’s expressive 
eyes spoke plainly, warm and soft words 
which touched his heart, and the first thing 
she uttered was, “My dear Fred, you are a 
real hero! You saved my life, you saved me 
from a horrible death. How can I ever repay 
you for such a brave and noble deed? I will 
gladly do anything you may wish me to do 
in return.” She got up to her feet then, and 
kissed him on his cheek, like a child. 

Although he was a farmer’s son, he was 
no fool, and he could tell she had fallen in 
love with him. This was so unexpected that 
he could find no words to express his feel- 


DARTING RAYS 

ings, but he said: “I am very glad you did 
not get hurt, but I have done nothing great, 
I only did my duty.” 

Now in the interest of the reader and of 
truth, and in fairness to both Isabel and the 
hero, a partial description will be given of 
them. Fred was a bright and handsome man, 
about six feet tall; his figure and features 
were almost perfect from our American point 
of view; the color in his cheeks was the pic¬ 
ture of health; the light in his eyes reflected 
his warm, tender and pure heart. Apparently 
he had the faculty of making most any 
woman admire him. He was the sort of man 
who had a strong effect on the weaker sex. 
He possessed such magnetism and charm 
that it would draw women without as much 
as a wink of an eyelash. No wonder Isabel 
had fallen in love with him. She invited him 
to dine with her that evening at her home. 
Although he could not very well refuse to 
do what his mistress asked of him, he knew 
he had nothing to wear that would look well 
enough. While he was hesitating and think¬ 
ing of this, she could read his mind and told 
him it would be all right, for there will be 
only my father and myself at dinner tonight 
38 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

and even if there were a hundred guests I 
would not be ashamed of you. To the con¬ 
trary, I would be very proud of you, indeed 
I would. Isabel’s beautiful blonde hair had 
become undone during the runaway and 
hung down her back like a veil of rare lace, 
only thicker, heavier and more bushy. She 
stood there in all the glory of her young 
womanhood, with a most lovely, graceful and 
perfect figure laced into her riding habit, 
with a sweet charming look in her big blue 
eyes. She was medium of height and stood 
erect. 

That is a partial description of her, but 
there are no words which could possibly ex¬ 
press her beauty and do her justice, so you, 
dear reader, kindly imagine that she must 
have been very attractive, for she was that 
in the eyes of Fred and now he had fallen 
in love with her in those moments while they 
stood face to face looking into each others 
hearts. Their eyes shone bright with love, 
which was unfolding and blossoming their 
cheeks, which showed that real life was ap¬ 
proaching, while there was a cute sort of 
fat little boy, who always shoots arrows with 
a bow, and while he was shooting, Fred got 


39 


DARTING RAYS 

so excited that he forgot himself, his social 
standing and that there was a gulf between 
him and her, as he was only her servant. 
Finally the shooting ceased and after Fred 
had recovered, he said: “My dear Isabel, 
although I love, worship and adore you with 
all my heart and would do anything in my 
power to make you happy, however I am not 
worthy of you.” While she replied: “My 
dear love, you are a great deal more worthy 
of me that I am of you. Just see what great 
things you have done and I have done noth¬ 
ing, so do not let that stand in the way of our 
happiness.” And it did not. 

They were married in the early spring. 
There was a sumptuous wedding feast, there 
were many guests and beautiful presents, but 
Isabel was the most precious and certified 
one among them all, in the eyes of Fred. She 
was his beauty like the scent of all the most 
sweet flowers are the beauty of the bees. 

After the wedding Fred and his bride en¬ 
joyed a honeymoon trip, a tour through the 
United States in their limousine. They vis¬ 
ited all the principal cities, and did not for¬ 
get the Niagara Falls, where many newly 
wedded couples spend their hours of amaze- 


40 


THE PICTURE IN THE LOCKET 

ment and happiness gazing upon those won¬ 
derful works of nature. They stood holding 
and pressing each others hands very affec¬ 
tionately and speaking words of love. Their 
happiness did not end there nor any other 
time thereafter, indeed not, for they cling to 
their happiness with the same strength as 
they would cling to their lives. Love need 
never grow old in married life unless one or 
both wish it to. 

Their happiness now is really complete; 
they are surrounded by pleasure and won¬ 
derful attractiveness, which makes them feel 
contented, for they have two children a boy 
nearly three years old and a girl of eleven 
months. They are very pretty and healthy 
and the most precious jewels in the eyes of 
their parents,, who are to be congratulated 
on their happy married life. 


41 








Sunshine and Darkness 

NE beautiful summer’s day Mr. and 
Mrs. Miller and their son Clayson 
went with Mr. and Mrs. Smith and 
their children, Arthur and Mildred, to a well 
known farm which is located near Marsh¬ 
field, Wisconsin. Their purpose was to spend 
a week or more of their vacation on this 
farm, which was considered an ideal spot by 
everyone in that vicinity. 

The effects of this outdoor life were soon 
noticed on these cooped-up city folks. Their 
faces tanned quickly, their shoulders widened 
out and their body in general had a more 
healthy appearance than before. Their 
brown hands looked as if they had never 
seen kid gloves. They tried to hoe, to plough 
and to pitch hay; but all their efforts were 
failures and they were soon aware that the 
43 





DARTING RAYS 

farmer’s work was not so easy as it looked. 
They had no ability to harness and drive 
horses. The team would not respond to the 
city man’s commands which lacked the force¬ 
fulness of their master’s voice. 

This party of Milwaukee folks were will¬ 
ing and obliging people and wanted to lend 
their farmer friend some assistance in his 
work, but thru their inexperience and igno¬ 
rance they hoed up some of the farmer’s 
corn and other crops and foolishly drew the 
soft earth about the weeds. They also hoed 
up fields of cabbage by mistake and left the 
burdock to grow. They would even clamber 
upon a load of hay or grain and then cause 
it to slide off the wagon. In fact they prac¬ 
tically spoiled whatever part of the farm 
work they attempted. 

But the biggest joke on this party of city 
people was that the cows even noticed their 
awkwardness at milking time and kicked 
over the pails, partly in consequence of the 
would-be milker putting the stool on the 
wrong side and partly because they were in 
the habit of holding the cow’s natural fly- 
chaser (the cow’s tail) with one hand and 
trying to milk with the other. 


44 


SUNSHINE AND DARKNESS 

Now the two boys, Clayson Miller and 
Arthur Smith, longed for some excitement. 
So they persuaded both of their fathers to 
explore the woods with them which is located 
not far from the farm. It was an ideal day. 
The air was invigorating in the cool and 
pleasant shade of the tall trees. They came 
upon wild flowers and trees which they had 
never seen before and they examined and 
admired them with great interest. Finally 
their stroll thru the woods brought them to 
the edge of a little lake. There they stopped, 
and as they gazed at the beautiful scenery 
reflected in the water which was so calm and 
smooth as a mirror, Arthur said: “I just saw 
a groundhog run in a hole over yonder.” 
They all went to the hole to investigate and 
Clayson got down on his hands and knees 
and poked into the hole with a long stick. 
Suddenly he jumped up and gave a yell 
which sounded like a war whoop. He ran 
like a streak of lightning and jumped right 
into the lake. 

The other three men thought that Clay¬ 
son had gone clear crazy. They ran after 
him and when they had finally gotten him 
out of the water he said: “That was no 


45 


DARTING RAYS 

groundhog—it was a skunk!” So they took 
Clayson back to the farmhouse and kept him 
in a separate room for a few days. 

However, Clayson was quite an accom¬ 
plished singer. He really had a wonderful 
voice and it did not take long for the Marsh¬ 
field people to find it out. Consequently one 
of the churches offered him two dollars a 
day to sing in the choir. But when the news 
of Clayson’s embarrassing accident was 
spread around, the church was too glad to 
pay him two dollars just to stay away. 

After Clayson had recovered, he gradu¬ 
ally began to venture among people once 
more. But vacation time was nearing its 
end and these city people commenced to 
realize that it was time to leave for home 
again. So Mr. Miller and Mr. Smith bade 
their host good-bye and expressed their grati¬ 
tude for the hospitality which had been ex¬ 
tended to them. They tried to persuade him 
to come to Milwaukee with them, but, of 
course, his farm work required all of his at¬ 
tention at this time of the year. 

An old neighbor, however, Michael Tay¬ 
lor, also a farmer, who had retired already, 
was only too anxious to take his place. Mike 
46 


SUNSHINE AND DARKNESS 

had not been away from his farm all his life. 
All he knew, and all he had ever seen of this 
great wide world was the little world of his 
farm. He had never heard a concert, seen a 
show or any other kind of entertainment in 
all his life. 

Mr. Smith, who had insisted on having 
Mike as his guest in Milwaukee, carried out 
a well planned program for his entertain¬ 
ment. He was shown the wonderful parks 
and boulevards, then the zoo, the public 
buildings and some of the finest residential 
streets with their beautiful mansions, lawns 
and terraces. 

Finally Mr. Smith took Mike to see the 
City Hall. They entered an elevator on the 
first floor and rode up to the eighth. As they 
stepped out, Mike said: “What did we get 
weighed for here?” Mike’s innocence got 
the best of Smith, for he had to laugh so 
hard that he could not talk for several min¬ 
utes. To think that his old friend Mike was 
a real hayseed who thought that they were 
still on the first floor! He had not noticed 
that they rode up eight stories; but when he 
noticed the motion of the elevator it reminded 
him of the enclosed scale which he had seen 


47 


DARTING RAYS 

at the railroad station where he used to sell 
his hogs and cattle. 

Undoubtedly the hayseed thought that 
Smith had sold him when he got on the ele¬ 
vator; for farmers are known to be suspicious 
of city people and sometimes superstitious 
also. Smith thought that the joke on the 
farmer was a good one and felt well repaid 
for the time which he had spent in showing 
Mike around. 

Smith and Mike then visited the criminal 
court. They listened to an interesting but 
very sad case in which Henry, a young man, 
was accused of attacking a young woman, his 
sweetheart, with intent to kill. The court 
room was crowded with people, but it was 
so quiet you could have heard a needle drop 
to the floor. The learned Judge, after some 
arguing by the counsels and after a brief 
speech, read the following letter which had 
been written by the dying girl, who had died 
from the effect of the attack upon her by an 
unknown man. The letter was written and 
addressed to her lover, the accused man: 

“My dear Henry. Your poor little Louise 
lies dying, suddenly but not painfully. My 
last thoughts are for you, my darling Henry. 

48 


SUNSHINE AND DARKNESS 

Some wicked person has said that you at¬ 
tacked me and injured me. I deny this with 
my dying breath and my dying hand. Show 
these words to your accusers and slanderers 
when I am no more. But oh, dear Henry, 
even this is of little moment compared with 
the world to come. By all our affection, 
grant me one request. Battered, wounded, 
dying in my prime, what would be my con¬ 
dition but for the Savior whom I have loved, 
and with whom I hope soon to be; He 
smooths the bed of death for me; He lights 
the dark valley. 1 rejoice to die and be with 
Him. Oh, turn to Him, dear Henry, without 
one minute’s delay, and then how short will 
be this parting! This is your dying sweet¬ 
heart’s one request who loves you dearly.” 

The Judge then said in a clear voice, “You 
have heard the words of a dying Christian 
woman, whose hand seems to have arisen 
from the grave to defend her lover, Henry, 
the defendant in this case. I therefore dis¬ 
miss the case.” 

Now Clayson Miller, who had that embar¬ 
rassing accident in Marshfield at the time 
when he had the misfortune of losing the 
friendship of that innocent and pretty look- 
49 


DARTING RAYS 

ing little pet with black and white fur. The 
Tommy skunk was perfectly harmless in 
that home of his, which was a dugout (a hole 
in the ground). Who can blame that cute 
little fellow for losing his temper and for 
using some of that strong scent of his, which 
was the only way he could defend himself 
while that big, strong young man Clayson 
was poking him with a big stick in his own 
house? However, Clayson would not look 
at it in that light. He felt hurt and thought 
he had been cheated out of his enjoyment. 

As his vacation time was not up yet, for 
it was a few days longer than that of the 
others, it happened that he went to Maple- 
hurst, Wisconsin, with the intention of sur¬ 
prising his oldest sister, Josephine, and her 
husband, Peter. But he. did not dream of 
the surprise which was awaiting him there. 
Yes, a surprise which nearly cost him his life. 

Maplehurst is not a city nor a town, but 
sort of a cabbage field with all the cabbage 
cut. It is a township of farms and woods 
about six miles square. But Clayson did not 
know this for he was looking for street cars, 
busses and cabs when he stepped off the 
train at the railroad siding. The train had 


50 


SUNSHINE AND DARKNESS 

been made up of a baggage and a passenger 
car which were attached to a long freight 
train. Well, as he stood in the country all 
by himself, a strange feeling, a sort of a chill 
went through him. He felt as if someone 
had poured ice cold water down his spine, 
then he felt an illness and a pain at his heart. 

He was homesick. Finally he picked him¬ 
self up and started out on the rough and 
dusty road toward a farmhouse which he saw 
in the distance. A farmer who happened to 
know Clayson’s sister directed him to her 
home. So he kept on walking and thought 
how nice it would be to visit his sister 
Josephine whom he had not seen for 13 
years. She and her husband were living on 
a farm near Maplehurst, Wis. As he was 
walking toward their home, he met a young 
man on the road who gave his name as Bill 
Jones. In their conversation, Clayson told 
Bill that he was going to surprise his sister, 
as she had not seen him since he was 7 years 
of age, and most likely she would not know 
him. 

He likewise told Bill he had a letter in 
his pocket which would introduce him to 
them. Bill walked by Clayson’s side for some 


51 


DARTING RAYS 

time, then he gradually dropped a few feet 
behind and shot Clayson, who fell to the 
ground, apparently dead. The murderer then 
robbed him of his money and also took the 
letter of introduction. 

Bill went to the home of the wounded 
man’s sister and represented himself to them 
as brother Clayson and was accepted as such. 
The next day Bill expressed his desire of see¬ 
ing the surrounding country and as Peter 
had much work to do in the field, it was de¬ 
cided that Josephine would take him out and 
show him the country. 

They hitched the horses up and Bill took 
the reins and drove the team, far into the 
woods. Josephine did not suspect anything 
wrong until late in the afternoon when she 
suggested to Bill that they better turn around 
and drive back home, but Bill paid no atten¬ 
tion until finally they came to an abandoned 
old log cabin, far into the woods and a great 
distance from any road. Bill took Josephine 
inside the cabin, and then told her he was 
not her brother, and that she would have to 
stay with him there. She tried to escape, but 
to do so was impossible; he therefore kept 
her with him all night. 


52 


SUNSHINE AND DARKNESS 

When they did not return home that 
night, Peter feared they had been lost in the 
woods. In the meantime, Clayson, who had 
been left for dead by Bill, was found by a 
man, who brought him to town, where it was 
learned he had not been fatally wounded. 

As soon as he gained consciousness, he 
told of what had happened to him. The 
sheriff went immediately to his sister’s home, 
where he found Peter much exicted. They 
then took up the trail of the two and found 
them in the deserted cabin. 

The sheriff looked through the keyhole 
in the door and saw Bill seated close to a 
table on which were two automatic revolvers. 
Josephine was lying on the floor in a corner, 
apparently asleep. 

By his extreme uneasiness, Bill reminded 
Peter and the sheriff of a timber wolf lying 
in wait for his kill. The sheriff shouted to 
Bill to “surrender.” A flash of fire from 
Bill’s revolvers partly split the door, disabling 
the sheriff by the rein of bullets. More and 
more bullets poured out. 

A bullet rang past Peter’s ear as he was 
crouched on the door sill and another one 
hit a log of the cabin close to his head. Still 


53 


DARTING RAYS 

he did not fire in answer, though he knew 
where the target for his bullet was. He did 
not want to be guilty of killing Bill even 
though he was only a ruffian. His plan was 
to wait until Bill had emptied his revolvers 
and take a chance on being hit. 

At last the shooting ceased and as luck 
would have it, Peter had not received the 
slightest scratch. With a heavy blow, he 
broke in the door and sprang upon Bill with 
the fierceness of a lion. Before the fight 
had gone on two minutes, Peter knew he 
would win, as he was getting some heavy 
body blows home, which were playing mis¬ 
chief with Bill’s wind. 

They clinched and rolled over against the 
wall with Peter on top. Peter’s fingers tight¬ 
ened on the throat of Bill. He struggled like 
a tiger to free himself, but he could not break 
the vise-like grip of Peter’s hand. Gasping 
for breath, he suddenly collapsed. 

Peter then bound his hands and feet and 
the sheriff took charge of him. Josephine 
and her husband took Clayson home with 
them and were very happy that they were all 
together and safe again. 

By now Clayson’s vacation was nearing 
an end, and fearing his employer would not 
grant him an extension, he had to leave for 
home. 54 


Heroism and Bravado 

N Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there lived a 
very wealthy and haughty young 
woman by the name of Diana. She 
had very winning and fascinating ways. Al¬ 
though many men came into her life, it seems 
that none of them were anxious to marry 
her, because she was too impudent and head¬ 
strong when she could not have her way 
about things. No matter with whom Diana 
would condescend to speak, she at all times 
insisted on having the last word. 

She finally met a very clever and thrifty 
young man, who seemed to have some influ¬ 
ence over her. This young man, whose name 
was Herbert, had heard of Diana and her 
willful ways, therefore he made it a point to 
call on her. He went in the spirit of bravado 
and thought it would be a novelty to have a 



55 





DARTING RAYS 

discussion with a young woman who appar¬ 
ently treated all her suitors with such con¬ 
tempt as she displayed. 

He donned his best and most attractive 
clothes, and finally made his call. He was 
accompanied by his pet cat, who followed him 
wherever he went. While riding slowly to 
his destination, he found a large broken 
heart made of metal. Likewise he found two 
horns which appeared to be from the head 
of a male sheep, for they were just exactly 
alike. Herbert stopped his automobile to 
pick up these objects, thinking that they 
v/ould come in handy some day. 

When Herbert arrived in the presence of 
Diana, it was a case of love at first sight on 
his part, because almost immediately he 
asked her to become his wife. He spoke to 
her in very endearing terms, telling her that 
he worshipped the ground that she walked 
on and would try his utmost to make her 
happy and contented. Diana, however, told 
him that she could never tolerate a man like 
himself, because he would wear out her pa¬ 
tience and her soul. Herbert replied that 
he could not wear out her soul, as he had 
already two wornout soles, displaying the 


56 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

wornout soles of his shoes. Diana then said: 
“You appear to be a miser.” “I am no miser,” 
Herbert replied; pointing to his pet cat, and 
with a smile on his face, he said: “Here is 
a miser, a regular mouse catcher, for she 
makes it a point to catch all the mice on my 
place.” Diana said: “You are too saving 
and close-fisted to suit me.” Herbert there¬ 
upon said: “I may be saving, but I am only 
saving for you, and I am not close-fisted,” 
showing her his open hands. To make it still 
more clear to Herbert, Diana said: “You are 
too stingy.” Herbert then said: “I am not 
stingy, for I would give you all I possess and 
throw myself in the bargain.” “I suppose you 
would and then break my heart in order to 
get it all back,” said Diana. “I would not 
think of breaking your heart,” said Herbert, 
“for I have a broken heart already,” display¬ 
ing the metal heart which he had found on 
the road. 

Although Diana was beginning to be in¬ 
terested in Herbert, her strange suitor, she 
was commencing to become angry, because 
Herbert did not give her an opportunity to 
have the last word. In an irritable voice, 
Diana said: “You are demented, leave my 


57 


DARTING RAYS 

sight forever.” “No, madam,” Herbert re¬ 
plied, “I am not demented, but thoroughly 
sane. 1 have made up my mind to claim you 
some day, and insist on speaking to you 
until you give in.” In a voice of rage Diana 
said to Herbert: “You are crooked, begone.” 
“I may be crooked and somewhat bowlegged, 
but I am not near as crooked as this is,” 
Herbert replied, producing the horn of the 
sheep which he had picked up. 

“You certainly are a very clever man,” 
Diana replied. “In all my life I have never 
seen the likes of it before.” “I have seen 
one similar to it,” answered Herbert, show¬ 
ing her the other horn, which was identical. 
Upon viewing both these objects, Diana was 
at a loss of words to express her surprise, 
consequently Herbert had the last word, and 
Diana was silenced for the time being. A few 
minutes later Diana in a soft and pleasant 
voice said to her suitor: “You are the first 
man who could outwit and silence me, there¬ 
fore I worship and adore you, and will be 
your loving wife. One month later they were 
married. Diana proved to be a very good 
and loving wife and mother, therefore, it is 
apparent that a young woman cannot be 


58 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

judged by her looks or her ways as to what 
kind of a wife she will make any more than 
you can judge by the size of a toad how far 
it can hop. 

A few days after the wedding, which had 
been a great event, the newly married couple 
went on a beautiful summer’s day with Her¬ 
bert’s brothers, John and Henry, to spend 
the day with their cousin William and his 
family, who were located in the northern 
part of Milwaukee. Their home was consid¬ 
ered an ideal spot by everyone in that vicin¬ 
ity. During the day John and Henry longed 
for more excitement, so they tried to per¬ 
suade their brother Herbert and cousin Wil¬ 
liam to explore the shores of the river with 
them, but Herbert said he did not feel well 
and therefore would not go. So the three 
men and Teddy, William’s dog, went with¬ 
out him. 

In the course of their walk across lots, 
through groves and bushes, they came upon 
a variety of wild flowers and other beautiful 
works of nature. Finally their stroll brought 
them to the banks of the Milwaukee river 
and they gazed upon the water which re¬ 
flected the nearby trees as a mirror would 


59 


DARTING RAYS 

reflect them. While they were admiring 
those works of nature John said, “I see a 
boat on the banks over yonder.” 

They all went to the place where they 
found a small and very narrow boat, which 
evidently had been washed ashore. Its pad¬ 
dles were missing, but William found a long 
pole with which he thought he could steer 
it. The boat was launched into the river. 
William jumped into the boat and poled it 
out into the middle of the river. All went 
well for a short time. John and Henry were 
standing on the bank watching William’s 
daring and dangerous movements. 

The faithful dog, which was a cross be¬ 
tween a St. Bernard and a Scotch shepherd, 
was strong of muscle. He was worried and 
anxious about his master. He kept abreast 
of the boat as it was going down stream and 
did not take his eyes off William. Finally 
the boat struck a particularly bad spot where 
the current was so swift that he completely 
lost control of the boat, which capsized and 
flung him clear. He could not swim, there¬ 
fore he was carried down stream toward the 
worst part of the river. The current after 
heavy showers of rain was churning swiftly. 


60 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

John and Henry stood on the bank unable 
to save William from destruction. 

Teddy had sprung into the water and was 
swimming at a fast speed straight toward his 
master, whom he overtook in the mad stream. 
He grasped the dog’s tail and Teddy then 
headed shoreward. The progress, however, 
was very slow even with the dog’s great 
strength and courage. He knew that it was 
impossible to make the shore as he scraped 
over a rock which bruised him, and when he 
furiously struck a second rock with a crush¬ 
ing force, he released his hold on the brave 
dog and with both hands and feet clung to 
the slippery top of the rock. When the dog 
felt the release, he stopped and partly 
whirled, throwing his head high, he looked 
at his master who was shouting, “Teddy, go 
to the shore.” When the dog heard William’s 
command, he turned obediently. With swift 
and powerful strokes, he swam to the bank, 
where he was dragged ashore by Henry and 
John. They attached one end of a long line 
which they were carrying to the dog, 
launched him into the water and told him to 
go to William. 

He struck out boldly and bravely, straight 


61 


DARTING RAYS 

toward his master at an amazingly swift 
speed. Teddy, swimming with the swift cur¬ 
rent, soon struck William with the force of 
a hurricane. Releasing his hold on the rock, 
he threw both arms around the faithful dog, 
and in that position both were dragged and 
pulled ashore over the rough bottom of the 
river, smashing against rocks and logs. 

One month later Teddy saved William’s 
life in another fashion. While he was walk¬ 
ing through a grove Teddy, as was his cus¬ 
tom, followed a few yards behind his master; 
without warning a man stepped from behind 
a tree struck William on the head with a 
club. He was sent spinning and only saved 
himself from falling by clutching to a tree. 
At the same moment the prowler was hurled 
backward to the earth with Teddy on top. 
Teddy drove in for the throat, but the man 
saved his life by throwing out his arms and 
blocking the way. He was badly bitten, how¬ 
ever, in the fleshy part of his arms before 
William could get his protector and brave 
dog, the bundle of love wrapped up in fur, 
off and away from the frightened, bleeding 
man. 

Sometime later John, William’s cousin, 


62 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

had another experience on the banks of the 
Milwaukee river just a little north of the city. 

One day John went with his brother Her¬ 
bert and his wife (Diana) to visit their cousin 
William. As usual John longed for some 
outdoor excitement and as he could not per¬ 
suade Herbert nor William to accompany 
him, he started by himself toward the river. 
On his way, he had the good luck of meeting 
his friend Bob, who likewise was out looking 
for excitement. So the two young men went 
together to the banks of the river searching 
for enjoyment. They did not have to go far 
to find it, as the weather was so lovely and 
nice that it was a pleasure to be out of doors. 
The air was mild and pleasant which made 
it really an ideal day. They were enjoying a 
stroll thru a grove near the Milwaukee river. 
Finally toward evening they came to the 
bank of the river. It was such a lovely eve¬ 
ning; the air was cool and pleasant, which 
invited the men to be seated, where they en¬ 
joyed the wonderful scenery just as Mother 
Nature had made it. 

At twilight, just as Bob had departed to 
go to a nearby house to see his friend Robert 
for a few minutes, John observed a figure 

63 


DARTING RAYS 

saundering along a narrow path near the 
river and while he was gazing upon the 
slowly moving object, he perceived a girl of 
not more than 17 years of age. She had a 
slim figure, with a delicate little face, and 
long golden curls. Her eyes were fixed 
upon the river with a look of despair. Sud¬ 
denly she looked around with a frightened 
glance and met John’s gaze. Her look was 
like that of a fawn, very timid. It seemed 
to John that she was only half conscious of 
her surroundings. He wondered if he could 
be of any service to her. He had no right 
to linger to watch her and obtrude his inter¬ 
est upon her. He walked away to a bench 
under a tree, but he could not expel the 
vision of that pale unhappy looking girl from 
his thoughts. He felt as if some one was 
telling him to spy on the probable romance 
that lay behind that look of misery which 
was on the face of that delicate childlike girl. 
He then walked to the river and along its 
bank to a spot in the bend of the river, where 
he could not be seen by anyone at a few 
yards’ distance. He, however, could see all 
around him. He was looking in the direction 
where he had seen the girl about 20 minutes 
64 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

previously, when his eyes caught something 
moving on the bank of the river where it 
was bordered by willow bushes. He watched 
the moving figure and perceived that it was 
the girl in despair whom he had seen a little 
while before. Presently she removed her 
hat, and in a kneeling position very close to 
the river she began to pray. By the time 
she was through praying and ready for that 
fatal plunge in the river, John was at her 
side and speaking very gently to her. “You 
are unhappy, pray trust me, what can I do 
to be of service to you?’’ She looked at him, 
but did not speak. Finally she said: “I have 
no home, no friends, and no money.” After 
a fit of violent weeping, she submitted to his 
appeal and went with him to his Cousin Wil¬ 
liam Schultz. They had one daughter named 
Dora, and a good comfortable home. John 
felt sure that he could appeal there to gen¬ 
erous hearts who were willing and ready to 
believe in an innocent child in need and to 
extend their help. When they arrived at the 
house, there was a quick rap at the door. It 
was late and Mr. Schultz had already retired 
for the night. Mrs. Schultz opened the. door 
and John in a low tone told her his errand in 
65 


DARTING RAYS 

a brief manner, saying: “You can imagine 
how helpless I feel with a young creature 
like that on my hands. I have trusted to 
your mercy, and I hope you will not think 
my act unwarrantable.” “On the contrary,” 
said she, “you have honored me by trusting 
me. Bring her in.” He went to his charge 
and led her into the house, where Mrs. 
Schultz and her daughter Dora stood await¬ 
ing her. The poor wanderer was looking at 
each of them, while the mother said, “We will 
take care of you. Come now and have some 
food, and then go to rest.” But the poor 
weary thing would receive no kindness until 
she had given an account of herself. 

“My name is Gretchen and I came all the 
way from Berlin. I ran away from dreadful 
things. I came principally in search of my 
dear mother. 1 had been taken from her 
when I was a little child, but 1 cannot find 
her, and I have no money, that is why I am 
in distress. My father took me away from 
my mother. I thought we were only going 
on a little journey, but he took me all over 
the world, to all the large cities. As 1 grew 
older, my father believed that 1 might be a 
great singer and actress. My Voice Was cun- 


66 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

sidered wonderful. I had the best of coach¬ 
ing, but it was distressing to me, as I did not 
want to be an actress. My father, however, 
urged and spurred me on, so I was obliged 
to perform from time to time in different 
cities of Europe. As I hated stage life, a 
rebellious feeling grew strong in me, and I 
was desirous of getting away from that hor¬ 
rid life, but I did not know where to go. 
My father had told me that my mother was 
dead, but by going over the past, I felt sure 
that he was deceiving me and not telling me 
the truth. One day my father came home in 
a state of intoxication, bringing with him the 
owner of a gambling resort. The gambler 
told me that there was no necessity for me 
to be an actress any longer, if I would deign 
to live with him in his beautiful home, where 
I would be mistress. I told him that I would 
rather die than submit to his demands. Then 
I hurried out of the house into the street and 
walked on until 1 discovered that I had no 
destination in view. Finally I arrived in a 
park and sat down on a bench in the shade 
of a tree. I do not know how long I re¬ 
mained there, for I had lost all sense of time. 
When I saw my father and the gambler com- 
67 


DARTING RAYS 

ing in my vicinity, I hid in the shrubbery 
nearby. They were unaware of my presence, 
so they seated themselves on the bench I had 
just vacated and commenced talking. 1 
heard my father say that he would bring me 
to the gambling resort the very first oppor¬ 
tunity he had. Finally they left the park. 
I went home, donned by best clothes, and 
taking a sum of money prepared for my jour¬ 
ney to Milwaukee, in the hope of finding my 
mother. When I arrived here, I found that 
the house in which we resided when I was 
a child had been torn down and nobody 
seemed to know the whereabouts of my 
mother. 1 walked the streets day after day 
in search of my mother, until I lost all hope, 
and felt alone and forsaken. Then this eve¬ 
ning came,” she concluded, “and you know 
the rest.” 

“I will be your mother and will be very 
good to you, my dear child,” said Mrs. 
Schultz. John then went to his hotel in 
peace. The event of finding Gretchen had 
stirred him very deeply, however, so he sat 
up a small part of the night thinking out the 
best course to pursue in regard to this beauti¬ 
ful young girl, whom he decided to adopt as 
68 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

his ward, and assist her in the search of her 
mother. He finally concluded to wait until 
he knew more about Gretchen, and would be 
guided by her wishes. Two days later John 
made a brief visit to the Schultz home. He 
found Gretchen at work with Mrs. Schultz 
and her daughter Dora. When he entered 
the room, Gretchen arose with perfect grace 
to salute him, and had a look of gratefulness 
and worship on her face for her benefactor. 
She appeared quite contented and happy, 
which was perceptible by her speech and at¬ 
titude. She said to John: “See how different 
1 am from the poor creature whom you found 
by the river side and brought to these kind 
and good people.” John said: “Anyone 
would have been glad to do the little I did.” 
“That is not the right way of looking at it," 
said Gretchen. “1 thank God that it was 
really you and not another who found me 
and brought me here to Mrs. Schultz.” The 
neatness of Gretchen, her dress, and the ap¬ 
parent happiness which shone in her face, 
was a real contrast to John’s first vision of 
her. For that reason, and to learn more 
about her and her father and mother, he felt 
inclined to watch her and to question ‘her, 


69 


DARTING RAYS 

but he shrank from what might seem curi¬ 
osity. He wanted to hear Gretchen sing, 
after he had learned from Mrs. Schultz that 
she had studied with some of the best singing 
masters of Berlin and Vienna. John, how¬ 
ever, felt that the expression of such a wish 
would be rudeness on his part, so he re¬ 
frained from questioning her. Mrs. Schultz 
told John that Gretchen’s voice was just per¬ 
fect; not so very loud and of strong range, 
but haunting, like thoughts of pleasant days 
gone by, which stir one’s heart. 

John’s sympathetic and kind nature natu¬ 
rally turned into anxiety in regard to this 
young girl, and it was his earnest desire to 
aid her in the search of her mother. He had 
some knowledge of secret service operatives, 
so he took it upon himself to search for her. 
After three days of searching and question¬ 
ing he saw a very delicately featured woman 
with a familiar graceful movement which he 
had noted in Gretchen. He followed the 
woman from one store to another, from one 
shopping center to the other, to the markets, 
etc., then on the street car to the outskirts 
of the city. When she left the car, he fol¬ 
lowed her for blocks until he saw her enter 
7*0 


HEROISM AND BRAVADO 

into a small cottage. After a few moments 
John rang the bell, and the woman whom 
he had followed opened the door. When he 
met her eyes and stood face to face with her, 
there was no more doubt in his mind. He 
was absolutely sure that this woman was the 
lost mother of Gretchen, for there was such 
a remarkable likeness in their features. John 
asked no questions. He simply said: “I have 
come to bring you good news. I have made 
the acquaintance of one in whom you are 
interested, one who is related to you.” John 
went on trying to make the disclosure gradu¬ 
ally. The woman said suddenly: “My dear 
child Gretchen has been found!” Presently 
he told her the rest, but as vague as he pos¬ 
sibly could. That evening he brought the 
welcome news to Gretchen. She prepared 
herself for the happy reunion. John took 
Gretchen to her mother’s house and then 
walked away with a glad feeling and with a 
light heart of having accomplished a good 
deed. His responsibility for Gretchen had 
now ceased, as she was now in the care of 
her mother, whom she adored. 


71 









Lively Domestic Scenes 

LORENCE, a pretty Milwaukee girl, 
had two admirers. Oscar, a druggist, 
was her father’s favorite. However, 
Jim was Florence’s choice. As Florence’s 
father would not give his consent to a mar¬ 
riage to Jim, Florence and Jim formed a plan 
one night to elope. But when the time 
came, she had lost courage and did not ap¬ 
pear. A few days later, however, they again 
agreed upon a date to run away. Jim, not 
wanting to be disappointed the second time, 
went to a drug store to secure some drug that 
would make the girl keep her promise. The 
druggist happened to be Oscar, Jim’s rival 
in the love for Florence. Jim, who was so 
absorbed in love and business, did not recog¬ 
nize Oscar, but Oscar knew Jim, who asked 
him for the desired drug and explained to 
73 




DARTING RAYS 

him his plan. Oscar, who was quick-witted, 
agreed to prepare a certain powder, which 
would serve that purpose. He put up a 
sleeping powder and handed it to Jim to¬ 
gether with the instruction to mix it with 
her tea or coffee. The harmless powder, if 
taken by Florence, would insure about seven 
hours of sound sleep, which would prevent 
her from keeping her date with Jim to elope. 
Jim went to the home of Florence on the 
evening of their runaway and, by mistake, 
put the sleeping powder into his intended 
father-in-law’s cup of coffee. A little while 
later the old gentleman was soundly asleep 
on the sofa, while Florence and Jim departed 
to get married. One can imagine what a 
surprise it was to Oscar when he learned how 
the powder had worked. 

A few months later the young couple 
started housekeeping. Time passed with 
only a little family quarrel now and then. 
However, mischief was brewing in their 
home as the months rolled by. One evening, 
after a very busy day in the office, Jim came 
home later than usual. Supper had gotten 
cold, but its heat seemed to have entered 
into his wife’s head, for she served her hus- 
1A 


LIVELY DOMESTIC SCENES 

band with a quick lunch, by hurling a potful 
of stewed vegetables at him, shouting: 
“Where have you freckle-faced, faithless 
Irishman been all this time!” And before he 
got a chance to explain, she threw a dishful 
of corned beef and cabbage at him, yelling: 
“Here, take that, you bow-legged, miserable 
scoundrel.” Next sailed a potful of boiling 
hot coffee which seriously scalded him. This 
made him hot, too, for he grabbed a dishful 
of rice pudding and threw it at his better 
half. She then served her beloved husband 
v/ith a kettleful of tomato soup, which gen¬ 
erally was the first course served, but this 
time it came last. When there was no more 
food to throw, they cleared the pantry of the 
chinaware and kitchen utensils of all de¬ 
scriptions and made them fly in every direc¬ 
tion. Then came the chairs and other pieces 
of furniture that could possibly be thrown 
instead of kisses to show their profound 
affections for one another. Finally she 
knocked him down with a flatiron, which, 
naturally brought their unusually lively do¬ 
mestic scene to an abrupt close. As soon as 
Jim had recovered from the knockout, he 
left Milwaukee for the time being to forget 


DARTING RAYS 

his troubles. He went with his friend Nor¬ 
man to New Orleans, where they made 
preparations to go hunting in the Louisiana 
forests. However, Norman returned at once 
to Milwaukee on account of his mother’s 
sudden death, which left Jim all by himself. 
The very first day in the forest he was very 
much surprised to see two children wander¬ 
ing around alone. He watched them for a 
few moments and recognized them as the 
nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daugh¬ 
ter of a prominent doctor of New Orleans. 
Evidently they had been out in the woods 
picking flowers and wandered deep into the 
forest until they were lost. They were 
standing near a rock busy arranging the 
flowers they had gathered, when suddenly 
their pet dog ran in front of them with his 
eyes keenly fixed on something in the dis¬ 
tance. At first, Jim saw nothing, but the 
way the dog ran around with his head bent 
to the ground, his hair rising on his back 
with anger, and growled and showed his 
teeth, told him that there was some danger 
in sight. Then he saw the fierce, glaring 
eyes of a female panther fixed on the chil¬ 
dren in readiness to leap upon them, and at 
76 


LIVELY DOMESTIC SCENES 

the same moment a cub dropped from a sap¬ 
ling. The little creature, with the ignorance 
of youth, approached the dog displaying a 
strange mixture of the playfulness of a kitten 
and the ferocity of its family. The dog’s 
eyes carefully followed the movements of 
both the cub and its mother until the cub 
leaped directly in front of him. With a fear¬ 
ful cry from each one of the animals a strug¬ 
gle began. In less than a minute the tiny 
cub was hurled into the air from the mouth 
of the dog, and was thrown against a rock 
with such force that he was instantly killed. 
Instantly the enraged mother panther leaped 
to the back of the dog, and there followed a 
terriffic struggle. The fury of the two ani¬ 
mals knew no bounds and they fought with 
a terrible fierceness, letting forth wild and 
terrible yells. The dog shook his foe off his 
shoulders and nobly faced each successive 
leap until the panther landed on his shoul¬ 
ders and tore the skin until the blood flowed 
from a dozen wounds. Rover made a noble 
effort to fight on, but the wounds disqualified 
him for such an awful struggle. The panther 
left him for an instant to gain a more favor¬ 
able position, and then with a higher bound 


DARTING RAYS 

than any before, she landed on the back of 
the dog with such force that the weakened 
frame sank and soon lay prostrate on the 
ground. The moment’s stillness that fol¬ 
lowed announced the death of Rover. 

The children had watched the struggling 
animals from behind the rock. They had 
been so frightened that they dared not move. 
Jim was about fifty feet back of them and 
they were directly in the path between him 
and the panther. He knew that the panther 
would soon be looking for other prey and 
wanted to lose no time in getting her out of 
the way. So he called to the children to get 
out of the way so that he could shoot, but 
they stood like statues, too terrified to move, 
with their tiny hands clasped in prayer, their 
ey is filled with horror and the dim hope that 
they might be saved. In an instant Jim was 
at their sides and, just as the panther was 
about to leap at them, fired a shot that 
wounded the beast and left her rolling on 
the ground. He knew the danger was not 
over and fearlessly maintained his position 
between the children and the savage beast. 
The animal seemed to show signs of return¬ 
ing strength and Jim realized that quick, sure 
78 


LIVELY DOMESTIC SCENES 

action was necessary. Quickly he stepped 
up close to the enraged beast, placing the 
muzzle of the rifle close to its head. Every 
spark of life was extinguished by the second 
bullet. The death of the terrible enemy ap¬ 
peared to the children like a resurrection 
from their graves. Jim accompanied them to 
safety, after which he returned into the for¬ 
est and shot a deer. He did not know that 
it was out of season, but a man by the name 
of Bill swore out a warrant for his arrest. 
He, however, could not get anyone to exe¬ 
cute it, inasmuch as the sheriff had been laid 
up by an injury to his arm, so Bill, with two 
other men, took the oath as deputy sheriffs. 
The three went forth to arrest Jim, and when 
they arrived at his home, Bill gave a loud 
knock at the door, which instantly brought 
him from the house. Bill read the warrant 
to him, then demanded admission to the 
house, to which Jim objected, and said: 
“Stand back, don’t tempt me. But Bill put 
his foot on the threshold to enter the house, 
where he was seized by the waist and hurled 
a distance of six feet. Then he seized the 
next and nearest man and hurled him on top 
of Bill. The suddenness of the movement, 


79 


DARTING RAYS 

and the unexpected display of strength on 
the part of Jim, made the third and last man 
retreat and give vent to his mirth. The en¬ 
raged Bill tried to have the sheriff gather 
and call out a posse to avenge the insult to 
the law, but the news of Jim’s brave deed 
in saving the lives of two children, by killing 
the enraged panther, had spread so rapidly, 
everybody praising him. Not one of the 
many citizens could be persuaded by Bill to 
lift a hand against him. 

On the day of his departure, the father of 
the two children mentioned gave him a lovely 
gold watch, saying that it was given in token 
of remembrance for having rescued his chil¬ 
dren from a horrible death. From New Or¬ 
leans Jim went to Texas, where he was nearly 
killed by a stampeding herd of Texas steers, 
when he was out taking a walk on the open 
plains. This herd of cattle, numbering ap¬ 
proximately 8,000 head, led by a dozen mad 
bulls, was moving fast toward him, bellow¬ 
ing and roaring like mad. Jim knew by ex¬ 
perience that it was useless to run for his 
life, for those Texas steers move as fast as 
the swiftest horse can move. As luck or fate 
would have it, he had his gun with him, 


80 


LIVELY DOMESTIC SCENES 

which proved to save his life. In another 
moment the herd was coming so near that 
those in front saw him. They attempted to 
halt, but they were overwhelmed and forced 
to move on by the pressure from behind. 
It certainly was a noble herd of cattle. A 
dozen bulls were first scouring, along the roll¬ 
ing prairie, succeeded by a broad file of 
steers, which were followed by a dark mass 
of bodies, until they appeared like countless 
clouds of dust shot up in columns from the 
mass. Some animals, more furious than the 
rest, plowed the plains with their horns. It 
seemed as if each steer strove to outrun his 
neighbor, and hundreds in the rear were 
pressing blindly on those in front. The great 
moving herd was advancing and heading 
toward him in such a manner that he felt 
the danger of his situation, which was of 
such a character as to try the stoutest nerves. 
While leaning on his gun and watching the 
movements of the large mass with his steady 
eyes, now deemed it the right time to make 
ready to strike his blow. He took aim at the 
foremost bull and fired. The animal fell; his 
neighbor also fell to the ground by a bullet. 
The two steers back of them fell on top of 


81 


DARTING RAYS 

their dead comrades, but they instantly arose, 
after which they fell again by two well aimed 
bullets. A dense mass and a heap of bodies 
were now rolling, tumbling and piling up in 
front of the herd like railroad cars piled up 
in a wreck, which checked the progress of 
the great drove somewhat in the center of 
the dark moving mass. Finally it cut the 
immense herd of steers, as it were, into two 
gliding streams of life. As the stream di¬ 
vided, the center of the place where Jim 
stood became clear. The two dark flanks and 
columns of steers, moving swiftly, swept by 
him on both sides like a great torrent bellow¬ 
ing and roaring to unite again at the distance 
of about a mile on its opposite side. If the 
gun had not done its work, he would not 
have lived to tell the story, and to see and to 
enjoy the great spectacle which few people 
ever have seen. There were about 40 ani¬ 
mals heaped up on the struggling pile, which 
v/as about 12 feet high. It was a pleasure to 
see the two streams of life as they swept by 
Jim. The front rank, as it passed, was as 
straight as a regiment of soldiers on parade. 
Their movement was as though they had 
been trained to keep step. The Texas steers 


82 


LIVELY DOMESTIC SCENES 

move very fast. They run much faster than 
the buffaloes, as they are not so heavy and 
clumsy. Therefore, it is more hazardous to 
get into the path of a large furious scouring 
herd of Texas steers than it used to be years 
ago to get into the path of a large drove of 
moving buffaloes in Texas and on the west¬ 
ern prairies. A herd of steers will leave their 
feeding ground and start on their mad and 
wild stampede by the sting of a bee or by 
seeing a dog or some wild animal, and some¬ 
times merely for the fun of it. One of the 
steers will give the signal by a loud bellow¬ 
ing roar, which will instantly lift every head 
and tail in the herd, and some of those that 
are more furious and vicious than the rest, 
will take the lead, ploughing the prairie with 
their horns. From time to time they will 
send forth a deep hollow bellowing, which 
seems to give them all the more vigor, and 
they move as fast as the swiftest horse on 
the race track. 


83 



A Married Man and 
His Typist 

AUL BROWN, the author of thrilling 
novels, while looking for a typist, 
learned that a young stenographer by 
the name of Georgette lived only a short dis¬ 
tance from his home, which was in Milwau¬ 
kee. One day he went to see Georgette about 
typing. After introducing himself to her and 
her parents in their home, he told them his 
errand. She asked him to come into the sit¬ 
ting room, and be seated. He then told her 
the nature of the work he wanted done. She 
considered it for a moment and said that she 
would be glad to do the typing. He then left 
a copy of the stories with her, and went home, 
but with a queer feeling. The event of meet¬ 
ing Georgette had stirred him deeply. She 
85 






DARTING RAYS 

was the most beautiful, the most charming 
girl he had ever seen. 

On his way home he thought of a thousand 
and one things at a time. Not being a fool, 
he was aware that she admired him; that she 
had fallen in love with him at first sight. 
There was no doubt about it in his mind as 
her attitude and her expressive eyes spoke 
as clearly as words can possibly speak. 

The following day he had counsel with 
himself in regard to Georgette and himself. 
He was meditating and weighing carefully 
what to do, and what would be the best, the 
right way to proceed. At times there was a 
strong feeling which urged him to accept the 
love of this most beautiful girl, and to give 
her his love in return. But Paul’s better, 
honest and manly character presently won 
the battle. He decided to end that love af¬ 
fair at the earliest opportunity. A few days 
later, he called on Georgette to see how she 
was getting along with the typing of the 
stories. He entered her home by the rear 
door and found her at work in the kitchen 
with her mother and two sisters. Georgette’s 
father was reading a newspaper and her lit¬ 
tle brother was sitting on the floor playing 


86 


MARRIED MAN AND HIS TYPIST 

by himself. When Paul entered the kitchen, 
she arose with perfect grace to salute him. 
She asked him to come into the parlor where 
she told him that she was getting along nice¬ 
ly with typing his stories; which were very 
interesting. Her neatness in dress, her fine 
manners, her beautiful gray eyes and loving 
smiles had been too much for him. He for¬ 
got for the time being that he was a married 
man, that he had come on business only, and 
with a resolution to end that kind of affec¬ 
tion. Paul’s passion had sprung up and 
ripened into a peculiarly rapid and vigorous 
fashion. The place seemed to be cupid’s own 
hot bed. The seed of love took roots strong¬ 
ly and grew and flowered with vigor. Love 
was aflame and hearts afire. 

They were quite happy to be together. 
This was perceptible by their looks, attitude 
and speech. She did the most of the speak¬ 
ing. Well, she was entitled to speak and 
make advances for it was leap year. She said 
among other things that he was a very nice 
man; that she liked him very much and all 
of these sweet things. He had not expected 
the suddenness with which the shots were 
fired and did not answer them. He made 


87 


DARTING RAYS 

some remark about music and instruments 
which were in the room. She then started 
the phonograph which brought her parents 
and sisters, who were lovers of music, into 
the room, but they did not remain long. Un¬ 
doubtedly they saw by the look of worship 
and affection on Georgette and Paul’s face 
that cupid had been at work. After Georg¬ 
ette’s parents had left the room she played 
on the piano and sang. Her voice was per¬ 
fect; not a very loud and strong range, but 
haunting, like thoughts of pleasant days gone 
by which stir one’s heart. The songs brought 
Paul back to his normal senses. When she 
stopped playing and singing he had collected 
his wits as well as he could. He was aware 
of a peculiar physical sensation, as if cold 
water were being poured down his spine; he 
was perspiring very much. With emotion he 
arose and made a gallant and desperate ef¬ 
fort. “Miss Georgette,” he said in a voice 
trembling with agitation. “I must tell you, 
I cannot keep it any longer.” He went on 
and spoke with evident sincerity. “Miss 
Georgette,” he said, “perhaps my attitude and 
kind feeling toward you tonight was not the 


88 


MARRIED MAN AND HIS TYPIST 

proper one for a married man, like me, to 
have. I must admit that 1 admired you and 
if it was possible, if I were free, I would do 
all that was in my power to have the matri¬ 
monial iron struck while it is hot.” She was 
greatly surprised to hear that he was mar¬ 
ried. It struck her like a thunder bolt. She 
was speechless for some moments. Present¬ 
ly she said that he should have told her soon¬ 
er. He said, “Pardon me for not telling you 
sooner. “My intentions were honest, but a 
human is weak. My mind became seriously 
unbalanced when I saw you, for you are such 
a beautiful girl, in all the glory of young 
womanhood.” He went on and said, “I am 
very sorry that this has happened. You don’t 
know how much it pains me, but you know 
as well as I do that I am not to blame, for 
you know that I came here on business only, 
and that I was so wrapped up in my writing 
that I did not notice it at once that you had 
fallen in love with me at first sight. Further¬ 
more I did not think it necessary to wear a 
badge on the collar of my coat or a tag on 
my back which would say “Girls I am a mar¬ 
ried man.” Finally Georgette said, “I do not 
blame you for anything.” Miss Georgette 
and Paul were level headed. 

89 


DARTING RAYS 

They both took their share of the blame 
in their affairs and mistake. They also took 
punishment remarkably well. “We can still 
be friends/’ Georgette faltered. Finally after 
they had talked the matter over they both 
thought that friendship of that nature was 
not very safe, certainly not under those cir¬ 
cumstances. Therefore they decided to part 
for good. “Mr. Brown,” she said, “perhaps 
some day you will write a book on love and 
will tell us why girls fall in love with mar¬ 
ried men, and why there is so much affection 
wasted.” He said that falling in love, wheth¬ 
er married or not, was natural, and a part 
of the pleasant experiences which makes up 
our lives. “If there is any affection wasted,” 
he said, “that cannot be helped.” 

“The good book tells us that we should 
have and show affection. It tells us these 
words, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ The 
bible does not say, ‘Be careful, and do not 
waste any love and affection.’ According to 
that it is no sin and there is no harm done if 
there is some affection wasted. So let us all 
keep up love and affection until we have to 
quit it; until the priest or minister at our 
grave says, 

‘Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust, 

90 


Through a Secret Tunnel 

RANK HALL of Chicago, and Joseph 
Mueller, a Milwaukee man, became 
acquainted and in a short time were 
very good friends. Frank invited Joe to dine 
with him at his Chicago home. Joe accepted 
the invitation and accompanied him to the 
outskirts of the city, where Frank resided, 
which was also the home of his daughter, 
May, a sweet looking girl of 17, and her child 
of 6 months. After dinner Frank related to 
Joe, concerning his suffering in regard to his 
young daughter, who was misled and ruined 
by his neighbor’s son, George Fletcher. 

Frank told Joe that this incident occurred 
one day when May met George in a little 
grove back of the Fletcher’s estate, which 
May was crossing to cut short the way to her 


F 

M 


91 





DARTING RAYS 

Aunt’s place. George turned around and 
walked by May’s side. It seems that this was 
the first time they had been alone together. 
He was very nice and sweet to her, telling 
her that she was quite right in choosing this 
way to go to her aunt’s place, as it was much 
shorter. George asked her whether she was 
in the habit of returning the same way in the 
evening. “Yes, sir,” May answered, with a 
timid whispering voice, for she did not know 
how to speak to a gentleman like Mr. Fletch¬ 
er. “Are you not afraid to come a lonely road 
like this,” he said. “No, sir, I am never out 
late; I am always home before dark,” an¬ 
swered May. George pressed her hand and 
said with a look and tone that were almost 
chilling to an innocent soul like May. “I 
have been hindering you, I must not keep you 
any longer. Good-bye, I hope to see your 
sweet face again before long.” He turned and 
hurried back toward home, leaving May to 
pursue her way to her aunt. 

On her way home that evening, May met 
George at the same place where he had left 
her in the morning. He was strolling along 
carelessly with a book in his hand, but not 


92 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

looking on the ground as meditative men are 
apt to do. His eyes were fixed on a little fig¬ 
ure appearing, a figure with a deep blushing 
face, almost frightened as George came up to 
her looking foolish, as if he had been taken 
by surprise, instead of meeting just what he 
expected. George said, “it is getting late, 
and if you don’t mind, I will see you safely 
home.” She did not answer him, but he 
turned and walked by May’s side. They 
walked along in silence for some time, but in 
the next instant May felt an arm steal around 
her and saw his head bending toward her 
with a look of coaxing entreaty on his face. 
May met the eyes that were bent toward her 
with a deep blush and with a timid look. 
What a space of time those few moments 
were, while their eyes met and his arm 
touched her! Love is such a simple thing 
when we are four and twenty summers, and 
a sweet innocent girl of 16 trembling under 
our glance, as if she were a bud first opening 
her heart with wondering rapture to the 
morning. Such young unfurrowed souls roll 
to meet each other like two velvet peaches 
that touch softly and are at rest. But they 


93 


DARTING RAYS 

started asunder as May’s basket had fallen on 
the ground with a rattling noise. George 
picked up the basket, hung it over her arm, 
and said: “You will be expected at home, 
good-bye.” Without waiting for her to speak, 
he turned away from her and walked toward 
the road that led to his father’s mansion, 
leaving May to find her way home along. 

When May came in the house she was 
excited, therefore, her father asked her 
whether she had seen anything in the woods 
which had frightened her. She said that she 
had been running because it was getting late, 
which made her excited. A few days later 
while May was on her way to see her aunt, 
she met George in the grove again, where he 
had been waiting for her. George turned 
around and walked by May’s side, without 
any explanation. He told her that she looked 
very beautiful and that he had been thinking 
of her sweet face every hour since they first 
met, and he was wondering if she, the dear 
little thing, had been thinking of him too. 
While he was saying this, his arm was steal¬ 
ing around May’s waist again and it was 
tightening its clasp. He was bending his face 
94 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

nearer and nearer to her round cheek, until 
his lips were meeting those child lips, and for 
a long time he held her in his savage embrace, 
trying to satisfy his black soul. 

Frank said that after that May would 
come home later and later in the evening, 
until one evening long after dark he was won¬ 
dering what happened to his daughter, and 
in order to ease his mind went out in search 
of his child. Frank further related that 
while walking along in the grove on Fletch¬ 
er’s estate he heard some whispering voices 
to the right, and turning, his eyes fell on two 
figures. He was as motionless as a statue, 
when he beheld that one of the two figures 
was his dear child, who was standing oppo¬ 
site young Fletcher. They were in the act of 
kissing, with clasped hands, about to part. 
May hurried through the gate and was on 
her way home, but George walked slowly 
toward Frank, who still stood transfixed. 
Frank said that if he had moved a muscle he 
would have sprung upon the young man like 
a tiger. George looked excited as he tried 
to pass me without speaking. “Stop,” said 
I in a kmd harsh voice, “I have something to 


95 


DARTING RAYS 

say to you, you light-minded scoundrel/’ He 
did not stop, but in a moment I was in front 
of him pulling off my coat, asking him to 
light it out man to man. “Go away, Frank,” 
said he, “1 will not fight you old man, neither 
do I want to injure you.” “But you have in¬ 
jured me and my daughter. You made her 
love you when you know that you never 
would love her, never would marry her! 
Flirting with my daughter is a very different 
affair than flirting with a girl of your own 
station, who understands it to be an amuse¬ 
ment on both sides, or if it became serious, 
there would be no obstacle to marriage. But 
my little daughter would be spoken ill of im¬ 
mediately, if she should be seen walking with 
you, saying nothing of hugging and kissing 
her.” Without saying a word, George turned 
around and walked toward the road. 

When I came home May was lying on her 
bed crying like a child. The next day she 
confessed all of her relations with young 
Fletcher to me. As soon as my daughter 
knew that she was in a serious condition, she 
informed George of it, and begged him to 
marry her for the sake of their child, but he 


96 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

flatly refused to do so. There are moments 
when I have a desire to kill the scoundrel, but 
I want him to live! I want his proud father 
and sister Annie to suffer the same as my 
daughter and I suffer! I want and must 
have revenge, Frank continued. 

It was late in the evening when Frank 
had finished telling Joe of his daughter’s sad 
experience. He told his friend that he pitied 
him and his daughter and her baby, also that 
he was very much in sympathy with them all, 
but since it was getting late, he thought it 
time for him to return to his hotel. “Oh no!” 
his host said: “Stay here, we will soon have 
lunch, and after lunch I will tell and show 
you how I will punish the Fletchers. It will 
be interesting for you to listen to what I 
have to say. As Joe was fond of anything 
interesting, he remained. 

Some time after lunch, Joe’s host said 
that he would take him through a tunnel 
which he had made. Frank lit a candle and 
asked Joe to follow him. He led the way 
down the cellar to the low tunnel. “This is 
a secret passage which leads to the Fletcher 
house,” he said. They made their way 


97 


DARTING RAYS 

crawling on hands and knees. When they 
came to the end of the passage, he whispered 
to Joe not to speak loud. He gave the candle 
to him and mounted some steps, and at the 
top opened what seemed to be a small trap 
door on a floor which seemed to be covered 
with a rug or a carpet, which he did not re¬ 
move. We returned to the cottage the way 
we came. 

Frank said, “you see I have it all ready, 
and tonight after everybody is asleep, I want 
you to go by the way of the tunnel and up 
the steps, crawl through the secret door 
which I opened for you and which leads you 
into the bed chamber of Miss Annie Fletcher, 
and deliver a message to her. That is all you 
will have to do. Will you kindly do that? 
Frank said. Joe tried to argue with him, 
but he seemed to be full of passion. He 
said: “I mean it as sure as there is a God in 
Heaven, and if you refuse to deliver that 
message, we will all suffer death.” He was 
very much excited. Joe said, “Will you let 
me read the message?” “No,” Frank said, 
“I cannot let you read it, as it is a secret until 
it is delivered.” 


98 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

Joe is not a coward, and inasmuch as he 
always loved adventure, he said: “I will de¬ 
liver the message.” Frank, therefore, gave 
him the sealed letter. A few hours later, Joe 
went into the secret passage, feeling his way 
along. When he reached the end of the tun¬ 
nel, he went up the steps and slowly pressed 
back the carpet which covered the secret 
door. There was a light in the room, and in¬ 
asmuch as he was almost directly under a 
high bedstead, he crawled out from under it, 
and upon standing up beheld a beautiful 
young lady in a night gown with parted lips 
and looking at him through horrified eyes as 
if he were a ghost. She had lost all power of 
speech, so had he, for he stood there without 
speaking for some time. At last he said: 
“Pardon me madam, I came here through a 
secret tunnel and door which leads into this 
room to deliver a message to a Miss Annie 
Fletcher. Are you the lady?” She nodded. 
When she had regained her speech, she said: 
“Yes, I am Annie Fletcher.” 

Joe gave her the message saying: “Par¬ 
don me for my way of coming here. I shall 
return the same way that I came, through 


99 


DARTING RAYS 

the tunnel. He turned toward the secret 
door under the bed, and with horror found it 
locked from the inside. It appears that Frank 
was not content that he should merely deliver 
the message and then come back through the 
tunnel. Joe then told Annie Fletcher who he 
was and how he got acquainted with Frank, 
how he came to her, in short he told her all 
about himself. As she made a very good im¬ 
pression upon him, and appeared to be a 
very nice young lady, he felt hurt and 
ashamed of his coming. He said that he 
would not ask for forgiveness, as he was not 
worthy of being forgiven. 

They then heard strange noises as of 
horses in the dooryard, and the clink of spurs 
on the stone step. Annie and Joe stood lis¬ 
tening and trembling, as they heard the men 
walking and talking in the hall. In a mo¬ 
ment they rapped hard on the door calling 
loudly. They stated that they were officers 
and would be obliged to search the room as 
Frank from the cottage next door had seen 
some men enter this part of the house who 
were probably robbers or murderers. 

It was all very plain now to Joe, Frank 


100 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

had framed a pretense of seeing men enter 
the house as robbers, in order to trap him 
there with Annie in her bed room. This was 
Frank’s revenge. Annie opened the door of 
her room outside of which a group of men 
stood, who looked upon Joe as if he were a 
horrible thing. No one spoke, but the faces 
accused him of more than he really was 
guilty. Joe, upon Mr. Fletcher’s request, 
told them how he came to be there, but no 
one believed his story. They placed him in 
a room for the night under guard. The fol¬ 
lowing day two men entered his room and led 
him out of doors into a carriage. There was 
a crack of the whip, and the horses went off 
bounding. They went over rough roads for 
two hours. Finally they came to a halt on 
the road, the carriage door swung open, and 
they pulled him out roughly, leading him into 
a long passage and up a flight of stairs. They 
then went through a hall, where a door swung 
open, and Joe was led into a dark room. Then 
suddenly a light flashed from below him, and 
he found that he was standing on the brink 
of a large furnace about 12 feet below, the 
flickering light settling into a steady glow, 


101 


DARTING RAYS 

and large flames coming out of the red hot 
furnace. A cold sweat came out upon Joe, 
when he was ordered to jump. Some seconds 
of silence followed, as he began to measure 
with his eyes the fall and the distance, won¬ 
dering if he could clear the furnace, while 
his soul went up to God for help. His muscles 
tightened, he leaped through the air, cleared 
the furnace, and struck upon a soft mat a 
little beyond the furnace. He saw some men 
standing there. One man came up to where 
he stood and said, “You have one or two 
more chances for your life and to prove 
yourself worthy of Annie.” He began to look 
about and at the men in the arena. There 
about a dozen men surrounding him. A tall 
young man came out of the crowd, who was 
introduced to Joe as Mr. King, Annie Fletch¬ 
er’s fiance. He had two revolvers in his hand, 
of which Joe was told to take his choice. He 
also was told to fight a duel with Mr. King, 
his rival for the love and hand of Annie. Joe 
told them that he was not in love with 
Annie, but they would not believe him. He 
did not care to fight a duel, but had no other 
alternative, as everything was in readiness 
1O2 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

for the duel and the word was given to fire. 
Joe was cool and had made up his mind what 
to do, so he would not be a murderer and 
that he would not be murdered. While Mr. 
King took aim at Joe’s head, Joe shot him 
in the arm with which he was taking aim. 
King’s revolver dropped to the ground, and 
the bullet went wild of its mark. 

Now Mr. Fletcher came up to Joe and 
said, “You have proven yourself worthy of 
life and you may live. I like your pluck; you 
are a brave and courageous man. You may 
have my daughter Annie. She is a very good 
girl. She is an angel, and the sunshine of 
my life. She is the dearest thing in the 
world, full of kindness and affection. She 
is charming and graceful; is frank, truthful 
and honest. She is very beautiful, but her 
beauty is of the natural type, there is nothing 
artificial about it. You are worthy of her. 
Say the word, and I will take you home with 
me.” Joe refused to go, so he was led down 
a winding passage of stone paving, then he 
found himself in a black, dark dungeon deep 
down somewhere, with a heavy iron door and 
lock. He lay there on the straw doing a lot 
of thinking, Which brought him no hope. 

103 


DARTING RAYS 

The next day he heard footsteps, a man 
came, unlocked the door and said: “Come, 
a young lady wants you upstairs/’ He led 
Joe through narrow passages and doors till 
he felt lost. They soon came out where he 
could feel the sweet fresh air blowing in his 
face. A few moments more, and the guard 
led him into a large beautiful room with soft 
carpet on the floor. Joe stood before a 
young woman, but his eyes were dazzled by 
the light at'first, so he did not recognize her 
until she asked: “Do you not know me?” 
He took a good look at her and saw that it 
was Annie Fletcher. Her face was lighted 
with trouble, and her noble beauty was full 
of tenderness and pity. “I shall try to make 
you comfortable and happy,” she said. The 
guard was gone, therefore he was as free as 
any man. Miss Fletcher told him to follow 
her. She led him into the open air, where 
they entered a limousine and away they 
went. While they were driving on a lonely 
road Annie said: “You have done great 
things, of which you can be proud.” Joe 
said: “But I cannot be proud of coming into 
your room in the middle of the night like a 
thief. I will not ask you for forgiveness, as 
104 


THROUGH A SECRET TUNNEL 

I am not worthy of it. I am miserable and 
ashamed of myself.” Annie then said: “I 
came to tell you that you have been forgiven, 
and you have suffered since then more than 
enough to atone for it.” Joe’s heart began 
to beat fast, and as his eyes searched her 
face to see if she was in earnest, he noticed 
that he had never seen a fairer picture of 
womanhood than Annie. It was just like 
when a lovely flower becomes a blossom fully 
blown. Joe said: “My dear, this is the kind¬ 
est thing any woman ever did, if your coming 
really means that I may go away with the 
feeling that you have forgiven me.” “But 
why do you wish to go away, Joe?” asked 
Annie, with a sweet and soft voice and a 
smiling face. At that moment the limousine 
came to a halt. They stepped out, and Annie 
led the way up to a magnificent building. 
Across a veranda a large door swung open 
and a flood of light fell on them. They en¬ 
tered and she led the way into a large and 
beautiful room. Mr. Fletcher was approach¬ 
ing him with extended hands and a smiling 
face. Annie and her father made it plain 
to Joe that they wanted him to stay with 
them and to marry Annie, but as Annie was 
105 


DARTING RAYS 

like an angel and every bit as good, nice, 
and as pretty as her father had told him that 
she was, and even more so, Joe did not think 
himself worthy of her. Furthermore, he 
was old enough to be Annie’s father. As he 
was not interested in matrimony at that time, 
he went in search of something interesting. 
It seems that excitement is something like 
money, or something good to eat: the more 
one gets, the more one wants. 


106 


Thrilling Happenings 

LTHOUGH this remarkable experi¬ 
ence happened to a Milwaukee man 
some years ago, it is still new, as it 
was never published. 

Jack Simpson, a young man of great 
strength and ability, left Milwaukee in search 
of a homestead (160 acres of prairie land) 
in South Dakota. After arriving there, he 
went to the Government land office which 
was located in Yankton. After receiving 
maps which showed the location of Govern¬ 
ment land, he went about 35 miles to the 
north and while on his mission he came upon 
some emigrants from the State of Illinois, 
who were camping near a bubbling spring 
where Jack stopped for a drink. He started 
a conversation with the emigrants, as 
words cost but little, and sometimes lead to 
friendship. 



107 




DARTING RAYS 

They invited him to stay with them for 
the night, which was fast approaching, but 
he refused the invitation. After supper he 
loitered about the place and then, without 
any ceremony, slowly retired from the spot. 
He moved for some time without object or 
indeed without any apparent consciousness 
whither his limbs were carrying him. At 
length he came to a standstill. It was quite 
dark now and as he stood lost in contempla¬ 
tion for several minutes, the night air 
brought the sound of horses’ clattering hoofs. 
Jack’s keen glances soon caught a glimpse 
of some distant figures which presently be¬ 
came more distinct, and soon a band of a 
dozen or more Sioux Indians were bearing 
down upon him. Quickly he sank into the 
grass and a moment later the band of wild 
horsemen whirled by him, headed towards 
the encampment of the emigrants. In a short 
time they returned and dismounted within 
ten yards of him to hold a consultation. 
Then they walked to and fro as if they sought 
some hidden object. Jack suddenly felt a 
hand on his shoulder and looking up beheld 
the dark, savage countenance of an Indian. 
He was not disposed to become a captive so 


108 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

easily—he sprang to his feet and throttled 
his opponent with a power that would soon 
have terminated the contest, when he felt the 
arms of several Indians around his body and 
he was compelled to yield himself a prisoner. 

He had become the captive of a people 
who were considered a treacherous and dan¬ 
gerous race; and his fate seemed doubtful. 
The Indians had scalped all the emigrants at 
the spring and robbed them of their horses 
and cattle. Leading Jack and his horse into 
the village of the Sioux they made him pris¬ 
oner in one of the numerous tents. Later he 
was permitted to walk over the grounds 
where he saw a white girl of 17 among the In¬ 
dian women. Her cheeks were bloodless, her 
eyes swollen and red from weeping, and her 
manner shrinking and sensitive; in short, 
she had already suffered much while in cap¬ 
tivity. Her name was Katie Loomes and 
she had been kidnaped by the Indians, the 
Chief intending to make her one of his many 
wives. He had told her that his lodge was 
very large and comfortable and that Katie 
should be the greatest of them all. When 
Jack had a talk with Katie she told him how 
she had been kidnaped by the Indians from 


109 


DARTING RAYS 

her parents’ home, a distant farm. He told 
her that he would escape some night and re¬ 
turn with her father to get her, she to be on 
the lookout for them at the spring toward 
the lake. 

The lodge in which Jack was confined 
was in the very center of the Indian 
village and in a situation perhaps more diffi¬ 
cult than any other to approach or leave 
without observation. The hour of the night 
and the darkness, however, afforded him a 
little protection. Most of the Indian war¬ 
riors and their women had retired to their 
lodges for the night and were already buried 
in sleep when Jack left his lodge to escape. 
He crept along in the shadow of the night 
toward the lake, which he reached unnoticed; 
but as he got on the platform holding the 
boats and canoes, he was attacked by three 
Indians. Seizing the nearest of the three, he 
raised him entirely from the platform and 
hurled him into the water. But two enemies 
still remained. A blow sent into the pit of 
the stomach of one, and a kick into the stom¬ 
ach of the other, doubled up both Indians, 
and with another kick and a shove, all his 
enemies were in the lake. He jumped into 
no 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

a canoe and paddled toward the western 
shore, where he saw a dim light in the dis¬ 
tance. Landing, he walked in the direction 
of the light and after half an hour’s walk 
arrived at a farmhouse, where he was al¬ 
lowed to stay for the night. Next morning 
the farmer, who knew Mr. Loomes, Katie’s 
father, directed Jack to the Loomes farm, 
where he arrived at about noon. After a 
brief conversation with Mr. Loomes, in which 
Jack told him of his daughter’s peril, both 
men prepared for Katie’s rescue. That eve¬ 
ning they started off, with a boat in a wagon, 
for the Indian camp. Reaching the lake 
about nine o’clock in the evening they 
hitched the horses to the wagon and placed 
the boat in the water. They rowed for some 
time before seeing the Indian camp fire; 
then they stopped rowing until the hour was 
near for them to make a landing and carry 
off Katie. The boat moved so slowly that it 
would take fully half an hour to reach the 
point where the Indians’ camp fire was 
plainly visible. It was a dark, cloudy night, 
and there was little danger of discovery, as 
their progress was noiseless. Nearing the 
shore, the utmost skill and precaution be¬ 
lli 


DARTING RAYS 

came necessary in the management of the 
boat; the oars were lifted and returned to 
the water without a sound until they landed 
on the beach. They stepped upon the shore 
cautiously, examined it, and listening in¬ 
tently for the sound of footsteps or voices. 

As they slowly advanced they heard the 
laughter of Indian women. The adventurers 
knew by this fact that they must be very 
near the encampment. Jack proposed that 
they circle around the camp, getting into a 
position, close in, where the camp could be 
seen, and thus enabling them to get a glimpse 
of the fire and Indians around it. As they 
approached and walked around the camp they 
caught a glimpse of the fire and little by little 
they could see quite an illumination and some 
Indians near the fire. Jack looked eagerly 
and anxiously for Katie, but she was no¬ 
where visible, although the light penetrated 
to considerable distance in all directions 
around the fire. At length they spied a fig¬ 
ure in the background of bushes, which 
proved to be the white girl. Jack felt the 
tremor that passed through the frame of his 
companion when he saw the face of his 
daughter. Quivering on the air came a sound 


112 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

closely resembling the call of a nightingale. 
The sound was so familiar in the woods that 
none of the Indians paid it the least atten¬ 
tion. Katie, however, instantly sat motion¬ 
less; she had heard the signal before and 
knew that it came from her father. Mr. 
Loomes felt certain that his presence was 
known to her when at length Katie turned 
her face in the direction of the signal. The 
nightingale again was heard and the girl felt 
satisfied as to the position of her father, al¬ 
though the strong light from the fire in which 
she was gazing, and the darkness in which 
the adventurers stood, prevented her from 
seeing them. The moment was near for them 
to act. 

Katie was to sleep in a small tent near 
the fire. She made an excuse to go to a 
spring a little ways off to get a drink, but 
her companion, an old Indian woman, went 
with her, holding her tightly by the hand. 
The two women passed the white men within 
ten feet and before they reached the spring 
Jack suddenly seized the Indian woman so 
violently by the throat as to cause her to re¬ 
lease the girl. Loomes passed his arm around 
the waist of his daughter and dashed through 


113 


DARTING RAYS 

the bushes with her toward the boat. Jack 
kept playing on the throat of the old woman, 
occasionally allowing her to breathe and 
then compressing his fingers again, nearly 
strangling her. But the brief intervals for 
breath, however, were well improved and she 
succeeded in letting out a screech which 
alarmed the camp. At the next moment a 
half dozen of the warriors appeared. It was 
now high time for him to retreat and he 
moved toward the boat like a lion at bay. 
The distance from the camp to the boat was 
a little less than the distance from the spring 
to the boat, which placed him in a disadvan¬ 
tageous position; but luckily he gained the 
beach. His friend and the girl were already 
in the boat, anxiously awaiting his appear¬ 
ance. Jack stooped to give the boat a vigor¬ 
ous shove from the shore when a powerful 
Indian leaped through the bushes, alighting 
like a panther on his back. Drawing all his 
force into a desperate effort Jack shoved the 
boat off with a power that sent it a hundred 
feet from the shore as it seemed in an in¬ 
stant. He fell forward into the lake face 
downward, his assailant necessarily follow¬ 
ing him. Although the water was deep 
114 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

within a few yards of the beach, it was not 
more than breast high as close in as the spot 
where the two combatants fell. Still this 
was quite sufficiently to destroy one who had 
sunk under the great disadvantage in which 
Jack was placed. For a minute there was a 
desperate struggle, like the floundering of 
an alligator that has just seized some power¬ 
ful prey, and then both stood erect, grasping 
each other’s arms in order to prevent the 
use of the deadly knife in the darkness. 
Just then a half dozen savages were leaping 
into the water to assist their friend. Jack 
was made a prisoner and led to the camp fire, 
where he found himself surrounded by not 
less than a dozen grim savages, who knew 
no pity and no mercy. They were all so 
much engaged with the struggle and with its 
consequences that the boat containing Mr. 
Loomes and his daughter was unseen in the 
darkness as they glided noiselessly away 
towards their home, which they reached 
safely, while Jack was tormented and bound 
with a strong rope to place an obstacle in 
the way of his attempting to escape by any 
sudden leap. The Indians were so much 
115 


DARTING RAYS 

taken up with him that they did not notice 
Katie’s escape for hours. 

Jack was permitted to seat himself on a 
log near the fire in order to dry his clothes. 
While thus seated he wondered if Mr. Loomes 
would have been treated in the same manner 
had he also fallen into the hands of the sav¬ 
ages. The ropes with which Jack was bound 
had been drawn and fastened so tight that 
they caused him much pain; but he knew 
that this was only a small part of the pain 
and torture which the savages would inflict 
upon him the next day or for some time to 
come. 

Tenton, the chief of that tribe, seated 
himself on a log opposite Jack, saying: “My 
pale face friend is very welcome; I appreci¬ 
ate his return to this camp; yes, he is very 
welcome: we keep a hot fire to dry his 
clothes.” The Chief spoke in a broken Eng¬ 
lish, but plain enough for him to understand. 
“I thank you for the welcome and for the 
fire,” Jack returned. “Providence placed me 
among you savages; I do not care what will 
come to me as long as we got what we came 
for—Katie, the white girl, is off and safe 
with her father. We came into your camp 
116 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

on this errand only.” “I understand what 
you mean,” returned the Indian gravely, for 
the first time catching a direct clue to the 
adventures of the evening. He looked 
vexed, although he succeeded in suppressing 
any violent exhibition of resentment. He 
soon left Jack and joined the rest of his tribe, 
telling them of what he had learned. The 
news was received with surprise mingled 
with anger at the boldness and success of 
their enemies. The Indian Chief returned to 
Jack, saying: ‘‘You have stolen my wife; you 
must bring her back or your scalp will hang 
on my belt to dry.” “I have stolen nothing,” 
returned Jack. “Katie, whom you called 
your wife, would never be your wife will¬ 
ingly; take my advice and look for a wife 
among your own women; you will never get 
one with a willing mind from among the 
white people.” “You are right,” said the 
Indian.” “We know that we have a great 
brave for a prisoner, and we will treat him 
as one. Your torments shall be such as no 
common man can bear.” Jack felt his blood 
chill at the announcement but he maintained 
an aspect in which his enemy could discover 
no sign of weakness. “Providence has placed 
117 


DARTING RAYS 

me in your hands,” he declared, “and I sup¬ 
pose you will do as you please with me. I 
am your prisoner, do with me what you will; 
I am ready to meet my God.” For an instant 
there was a strong and pretty general desire 
among the tribe, which had assembled, to 
adopt into the tribe one who owned so brave 
a spirit, as the Chief told Jack. The Indians 
retired for the night, except two sentinels, 
who kept close to Jack. All night he was per¬ 
mitted to lie down on a blanket, but he did 
not sleep. 

The next day the Indians held a coun¬ 
cil over him in which they decided to 
torment him to death. While the conference 
was held among the Indians concerning 
Jack’s fate he was at liberty to go at large 
on the island. While Jack was not unconsci¬ 
ous of his rights the case seemed desperate; 
he could see no opening for an escape as he 
was aware of the line of sentinels and real¬ 
ized the difficulty of breaking through it. 
The lake offered no advantages. He walked 
about the small island, examining every spot 
to ascertain whether it offered a place of con¬ 
cealment and escape. Jack felt it a duty to 
himself to do all he could to save his life, 


118 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

but he also felt that he ought to see the 
chances of success before he committed 
himself. 

As he could not see the slightest chance 
of escape he quietly said: “God’s will be 
done,” made peace with God and prepared 
himself for the worst and most horrible death. 
In the meantime the business in the Indian 
camp had come to an end and Jack was sum¬ 
moned to appear before his judges. He stood 
in the center of the spot that had been pre¬ 
pared for the coming scene and the whole 
tribe was arrayed around the captive in a 
circle. The chief said, in part: “My people 
are happy in having captured this prisoner. 
Our band of men are few and we have need 
of help. We have plenty of young women 
from whom he can choose a wife for himself.” 
Jack told them the young white women were 
still more plentiful and he would choose one 
of them if he wished to get married. “Your 
suggestion goes against my grain,” said he, 
“I have heard of men saving their lives in 
that way, but I would prefer death to captiv¬ 
ity of that kind.” The Indian chief then or¬ 
dered some of the younger men to bind him; 
he offered no resistance, but submitted his 


119 


DARTING RAYS 

arms and legs freely. As soon as he was 
bound and helpless he was placed and bound 
with his back against a tree in a way that pre¬ 
vented him from moving as well as from 
falling. 

As soon as the young savages knew 
that they were at liberty to commence their 
infernal work six of them entered the arena, 
knife in hand, ready to throw, aiming to 
strike the tree as near as possible to Jack’s 
head, without hitting him. The object was 
to put the nerves of their victim to the most 
severe test. The first weapon whirled through 
the air, striking the tree to which he was 
bound within two inches of his left ear. The 
second knife was thrown by a young Indian 
by the name of “Flying Eagle.” Jack saw the 
keen weapon fly towards him and believed 
that all was over. The knife carried before 
it some of his hair and buried itself deep in 
the tree, close to his scalp. There was a gen¬ 
eral yell and applause. Still our hero main¬ 
tained an appearance of self-possession. He 
had made up his mind to endure everything. 
The next knife that was thrown by Papo, 
peeled off some skin from Jack’s cheek. 
Three more Indians hurled the knife in a 


120 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

reckless way, yet with a skill that prevented 
injury to the hero. The chief now called five 
of the best marksmen in the circle, bidding 
them to put the prisoner to the proof of the 
rifle, at the same time telling them that it was 
desired to graze Jack’s head with their bullets 
without injury and that a hair’s breadth dif¬ 
ference would be the utmost limit they would 
be allowed. He well knew that such victims 
were often shot through the head by too 
eager or nervous marksmen; but he felt some 
relief at the thought, like a sufferer, who had 
long endured the agonies of a disease, feels 
at the certain approach of death. The marks¬ 
men, with rifles in hand, were stationed at a 
distance of twenty-five yards from the cap¬ 
tive. Shot after shot was fired, the bullets 
clipping off almost all of Jack’s hair without 
touching his head. Jack’s familiarity with the 
rifle enabled him to tell, within half an inch, 
the spot where each bullet must strike; he 
calculated its range by looking into the muz¬ 
zles of the rifles. His pride got the better of 
him—he had forgotten that he must die. The 
Chief then told his people that the prisoner 
had well withstood the trials of the knife and 
the rifle; that no one could detect even the 


121 


DARTING RAYS 

twitching of a muscle, or the slightest wink¬ 
ing of an eye on the part of the captive; that 
he had proved himself to be a man, a hero, 
and worthy to be a great chief among them. 

There was not one in the tribe who really 
felt any hostility toward Jack now, and the 
desire to adopt him into the tribe was strong¬ 
er now than before. But Jack still refused 
to be adopted by them. To the Indians it had 
become a point of honor to punish the man 
who refused to become one of them and who 
refused to marry one of the tribe’s women, 
and, more particularly, one who coolly pre¬ 
ferred death. It seemed that the honor of 
the tribe was now involved in the issue, there¬ 
fore the Indians made preparations for real 
torture and severe bodily pain. Dried wood 
was collected near the tree to which he was 
bound and the fire was lighted in the pile. 
But it was not their intention to destroy the 
life of their victim by means of fire; it was 
their wish to break down his resolution and 
to reduce him to the level of a complaining 
sufferer. With this view a pile of brush had 
been placed and lighted near Jack. However, 
the distance had been miscalculated and the 
flames soon began to reach the victim; this 


122 


THRILLING HAPPENINGS 

would have been fatal in a very short time 
had not some of the kinder-hearted women 
scattered the blazing pile in all directions 
with sticks. Confusion arose among the 
tribe but after many arguments fresh wood 
was brought and the flames arose again. 
Once more the women and some of the men 
interposed, and the fire was scattered again, 
but not until Jack was severely burned. He 
suffered greatly but did not complain, for his 
spirit and resolution had not yet been broken 
down. He was released from the tree and 
was at liberty to walk about for the rest of 
that day. 

The following night Jack was given more 
liberty than he had been allowed before and 
this gave him a chance to rest and sleep. 
The next day all the Indians were remark¬ 
ably friendly and agreeable to him. It 
seemed as if they were trying to accomplish 
in a nice way what they could not accom¬ 
plish the day before by torture and by their 
savageness. That night Jack made up his 
mind to escape, if possible, although there 
was still a line of sentinels to break through. 
About midnight he walked toward the line 
of sentinels, hoping to find them asleep. He 


123 


DARTING RAYS 

was disappointed, but he would not turn back 
when the sentinel ordered him to do so. The 
sentinel fired at him, but missed. Still Jack 
did not hesitate and before the Indian had a 
chance to fire again he closed in with him 
and seized the fellow by the throat, stran¬ 
gling him. This was an easy job, but just 
then two more Indians appeared, attracted 
to the scene by the report of the gun. A 
blow sent into the pit of the stomach of the 
first one and a kick into the other doubled 
up both of them. Jack then ran for his life, 
making his escape without any more trouble. 


124 


Brewster’s Romantic 
Experiences 


1URING the six months of the World’s 
Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 
which was exceedingly wonderful, 
there were thousands and thousands of peo¬ 
ple from all the four corners of the great 
world assembled in the Windy City. All 
classes of people, good and bad. All nations 
and all tongues were represented. It was at 
that time when Otto Brewster, a young man, 
had a few romantic experiences. 

The first one was on South State street, 
near Van Buren street. A bullet came down 
from somewhere, crashed thru the brim of 
his hat, struck the tip of his shoe, and flat¬ 
tened out on the sidewalk. Otto thanked 
the Lord that he had not been hurt or killed, 
but as he did not care to depend upon the 


125 




DARTING RAYS 

good Lord’s protection too strongly, he 
thought it best not to pass that particular 
place any more. He would rather walk a 
block or two out of his way than to pass it. 
He never learned who fired the shot. 

One day later, Otto read an ad in a Chi¬ 
cago newspaper, which read like this: “A re¬ 
liable man wanted to manage a large farm 
in Iowa.” He thought that would be just 
his hobby. He answered the ad and met the 
party, which proved to be a woman about 
thirty-five years of age. She said she was 
an old maid and the owner of a large estate 
in Iowa, which had been left to her by her 
deceased parents. She gave her name as Ida 
Smith. The job looked good to him and he 
seemed to look good to her. They agreed to 
meet at the Palmer House on State street, 
where she claimed to be stopping. Of course, 
everybody was stopping at the Palmer House 
those days, if it was only for a half hour or 
so. Why, many people would go to some 
cheap restaurant to eat and then come to the 
Palmer House—which was so convenient and 
so centrally located—and sit down in an easy 
chair in the large lobby of the hotel to pick 
their teeth. 


126 


BREWSTER’S EXPERIENCES 

Otto met Ida Smith in the lobby of the 
Palmer House the next morning. She told 
him that she had been to the Union Depot 
and bought their tickets for Des Moines, 
Iowa, and that afterwards on Adams street 
near the depot, in a large crowd, someone had 
snatched her purse, which contained all her 
money and the tickets to Iowa. She put on 
such an honest and pitiful face that he of- 
ered to help her out. She said that she would 
telegraph to Iowa for the tickets, but that 
she wanted to buy a few things yet in Chi¬ 
cago. They went to Marshall Field’s where 
she purchased a few things, for which he 
paid five dollars. Then she said that she had 
wanted a nice little diamond ring for ever so 
long, and if he would let her have the money 
to pay for it she would repay him as soon as 
they got to Iowa. They walked to the Pea¬ 
cock jewelry store on State street, where she 
picked out a ring and a necklace for five hun¬ 
dred dollars. He did not have that much 
money with him; but as the clerk knew him, 
they accepted his check on the First National 
Bank of Chicago, where he had an account. 
Ida Smith placed the ring on her finger and 
the necklace in her handbag. She snatched 


127 


DARTING RAYS 

the receipt and the bill from the counter and 
also placed them in a handbag. Then they 
went to the Union Depot to take the train 
to Iowa. They walked down the winding 
flight of stairs in the depot to where the 
trains were stationed. Just before entering 
the iron gate at the foot of the stairs, Ida 
told him to wait there for a moment, that she 
wished to send a message over the telephone. 
As time passed, which seemed long to him, 
he got suspicious and a little bird whispered 
to him that he was the victim of a gang of 
crooks. A little bird also whispered to him 
to keep quiet and not to lose his head, as one 
of the crooks most likely was shadowing him 
at the time. The wool which had been 
pulled over his eyes by Ida had fallen off. 
He knew that if he reported it to the police, 
or if he were to go into a telephone booth to 
call up the Peacock jewelry store and tell 
them not to refund that five hundred dollars 
for the jewelry; or if he were to go there on 
foot, in a street car or a cab, that he would 
never see the jewelry nor the money again. 

Otto retreated to a secluded part of the 
building and when he was sure he was all 
alone he wrote a note in a hurry to the Pea- 


128 


BREWSTER’S EXPERIENCES 

cock jewelry store, to be sent by telegraph 
at once. He enclosed two dollars, slipped the 
note and money in his coat sleeve, walked 
up to the ticket office in the depot and asked 
the man at the window for a map of the Chi¬ 
cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul line. He pre¬ 
tended to be looking for something while 
he slipped the note into the map, folded it 
nicely again, and gave it back to the man 
at the window. After glancing around to be 
sure that there was no one near enough to 
hear him, he told the man to be sure to un¬ 
fold the map where no one could see it, for 
they were watched by a crook, and that there 
was money and a note in the map, and to 
send the note at once to the address given 
on the note. Then he asked for another map, 
and looked at it for some time. There was 
no hurry, now that the trick had been done. 
After a while he placed the map in his pocket 
and walked down town with a feeling that 
he would have the five hundred dollars which 
he had paid for the jewelry, in a short time. 
He did not notify the Marshall Field Depart¬ 
ment Store, for he did not want that five dol¬ 
lars. No, it was the five hundred dollars he 
was after. He knew very well that if he 
129 


DARTING RAYS 

notified the Marshall Field Store he would 
get the five dollars there, but that he would 
never get the five hundred dollars at the 
jewelry store; for he knew that Ida Smith 
would go to the department store first to find 
out if Otto had got a message to them un¬ 
known to the crooks. He knew that if she 
got that five dollars at the Marshall Field 
Store without any trouble, that she would go 
to the jewelry store to get the five hundred 
dollars there. On the other hand, he knew 
that if Ida learned at Marshall Field’s that 
he had sent notice, she would never go near 
the jewelry store; for she would know that if 
she went there with the jewelry she would 
lose it and get nothing for it. She would 
then go to some pawn shop or to some sec¬ 
ond-hand store and take whatever she could 
get for the jewelry, and he would be out his 
five hundred dollars. Two days later he went 
to Peacock’s Jewelry Store, where he learned 
that things had turned out just as he had 
figured. The woman came in there with the 
jewelry to get the five hundred dollars re¬ 
funded; but she got left, for they kept the 
jewelry and gave him the money. He felt 
that that experience was worth more than 
the few dollars it had cost him. 


130 


A Journey Around the World 

RTHUR MEYERS, a resident of Chi¬ 
cago, decided to send his son, John, 
out into the world, with the intention 
of making a man of him in order that he 
might keep him out of prison. 

John had been arrested for recklessly 
driving his father’s car through the streets of 
the city and hurling people to the pavement. 
Arthur Meyers had a business which em¬ 
ployed many people, and owing to the fact 
that he was so absorbed in it, he was not an 
attentive father; consequently his son, 
though thirty years of age, was still a child 
in experience. 

He had always loafed and shirked respon¬ 
sibility of any kind. He could not be inter¬ 
ested in work or in anything which was good. 
He grew up surrounded by luxury and never 



131 





DARTING RAYS 

did an honest day’s toil; therefore never pro¬ 
duced anything. John was no sapling any 
longer. He had grown up to a tree which 
could not be bent. All of the father’s advice 
and appeals failed to touch him, so the father 
then decided to send him to a training camp, 
to foreign lands. 

As John had never experienced such a 
thing as hardships and danger in all his life, 
he did not know that there could be either 
one of them or perhaps both connected with 
a journey of this kind. 

He was very anxious to make the trip, as 
he had an idea it would be a great adventure, 
surrounded by joy and pleasure, so it hap¬ 
pened that John Meyers went to New York, 
where he took passage on a steamer for Eng¬ 
land. After spending a few days in sight¬ 
seeing he had a delightful voyage to France, 
where he visited many places of interest. 
From France he went to Italy. Here, among 
other interesting sights, he found Port 
Naples and the Bay with its sun-kissed cliffs 
a lovely feast for the eye. 

Although the journey thus far had been 
a very pleasant one, the route from Naples, 
Italy, to Bombay, India, was not strewn with 


132 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

flowers as he had expected to find it. The 
weather was bad and consequently the water 
was very rough during the entire voyage 
across the Mediterranean Sea to the Suez 
Canal and on down into the Red Sea to the 
Indian Ocean and around to the Arabian Sea. 

Most of the time, one could not walk 
the deck of the boat without getting soak¬ 
ing wet and being thrown about. One night 
while John stood glancing about the deck 
of the ship, which was taking him farther 
and farther away from his home, all of a 
sudden a violent tornado struck the steamer 
and took it out of its course, as the helpless 
boat was racing along with the wind. 

John still stood on the deck, as if bound 
by a spell, and as he was gazing at the waves, 
which were almost mountain high, a strange 
inner feeling, a sort of secret foreknowledge 
took possession of him. It was as if some¬ 
thing apart from him, and yet not apart from 
him, had spoken and said: “Here is where a 
big moment of your life will be staked—the 
real part of your life is just beginning. The 
Far East has a surprise in store for you.” A 
strange thrill and stir moved through him, 
while there was nothing but water to be seen 
all around, even in the sky. 

133 


DARTING RAYS 

For the first time in his life he was awake 
and keenly alive. Fear and disaster were 
no longer empty words to him. As he saw 
the large steamer, with its powerful engine, 
helpless as an infant in the hands of the great 
powers of the seas, which no man can rule, 
he felt his manhood stirring within him. 
Finally he saw a ridge of white foam in front 
of the boat, and at the same instant there 
was a crash, a ripping and tearing sound. 
The ship had been hurled upon a rock. All 
of the passengers on board were panic- 
stricken by the unheard of shock which 
threw them in a mass to the floor. The 
fierce grinding noise made by the boat on 
the rocks were drowned by shrieks of agony 
which burst from the people as they were 
floundering on the floor. 

The passenger’s situation was unexpres- 
sible. One cannot conceive the feeling of 
men in such a predicament. The captain or¬ 
dered all small boats to be lowered and six 
people in each boat. The waves were already 
sweeping heavily over the deck as the sailors 
were launching the life-boats. 

John had been placed in a boat with two 
sailors and three young men passengers, 
134 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

when a great wave caught them and hurled 
them away. They were lost in the darkness 
and could not tell in which direction they 
were going. It seemed impossible for them 
to live in that little boat on the wild seas. 

It was then and there that the manhood 
within him was aroused. While John was a 
helpless prey to the whims of the great ocean 
waves, his character had suddenly changed. 
He thought of his weaknesses, his selfishness 
and the recklessness of his past life. He 
vowed in case he would survive the storm, 
he would be a man the rest of his life. For 
the first time since he was born, he felt real 
happy and was glad that things had turned 
out that way. 

At dawn the storm was abating and there 
was a calm sea. Along toward evening a 
steamer picked them up and landed them at 
Bombay, India. 

John visited many places of interest in 
Bombay and found the natives very inter¬ 
esting, especially their handwork, which is of 
such fine quality, and also their silks, rugs 
and textiles. He also visited the government 
buildings, the hanging garden and the an¬ 
cient rock temples. 


135 


DARTING RAYS 

From Bombay John went to Kandy, the 
capital of Ceylon. Here he saw the beauti¬ 
ful botanical garden at Peradeniya and Mt. 
Lavinia, and on the Island of Elephants the 
spacious caves and the native quarters. Then 
he visited the scenes of the Indian meeting 
in Cawnpore. At Moghul he went to the 
palace mosques, the Royal Stables and Al¬ 
bert’s Museum. 

He had a wonderful trip to the Plains of 
India and to the high mountain of Doerjeel- 
ing, an elevation of 8,000 feet, and then to 
Mt. Everest. At the Tiger Hill he saw the 
most glorious sunset that he had ever seen 
in his life. The clouds were aflame with 
glory—some of them glowed like huge castles 
wrapped in fire; others with the dull red of 
burning coal. The eastern sky was one sheet 
of burning gold. Lower down the floating 
clouds seemed like flakes of flame fallen 
from the burning mass above, and on the 
earth beneath lay great depths of shadow 
barred with the brightness of the dying light. 

Then John had a most interesting trip 
into the Hindu District to the Sacred Cities, 
temples, mosques. He viewed the bathing 
ghats in the Ganges river. The country be- 
136 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

tween Benares and Mallingaun was very ex¬ 
citing for it presented a very savage aspect. 
Several times the travelers saw human 
corpse. The bands of ferocious Indians, with 
their angry and threatening motions, made 
John hold his breath and wonder what would 
happen next, but the train passed on at full 
speed, leaving behind the savage people, then 
on through the forest where there were bears, 
wolves and roaring tigers, and nothing of 
moment happened. 

In Hindu, John had a number of hair¬ 
breadth escapes and adventures among the 
Kali and other tribes and thugs. It is part of 
their religious belief to commit murder in 
honor of Kali and Livas. Here John visited 
the villages of these tribes. The villages had 
very narrow streets and miserable, dirty, 
black huts. He ventured through the for¬ 
est and jungles that were inhabited by mur¬ 
derers and ruffians. These were the homes 
of roaring tigers, bears, wolves, panthers, 
snakes and all sorts of wild animals, and the 
trip would have been impossible were it not 
for the fact that he had a guide who was 
thoroughly familiar with every foot of the 
country, its roads and paths. They took the 
137 


DARTING RAYS 

road directly through the most dangerous 
part of jungles. They saw corpses and blood¬ 
shed in every direction. That savage coun¬ 
try was often stained by blood by the Kali 
tribe for the Goddess of Kali. 

One day John, thinking he would go for 
just a walk, ventured out from Malligann 
without a guide. The walk through the for¬ 
est was interesting and he went on and on. 
When it seemed time to turn back, John 
found that he did not know which way to 
turn. He was lost. After two days of tramp¬ 
ing he came to a very large lake. Here on 
the shore he found a boat which lay as if the 
wind and water had tossed it upon the land. 
It lay on a sand bank and he went to see what 
was in it. To his great joy, he found pro¬ 
visions. There was also ammunition and 
arms that were dry and untouched by the 
water. He looked out over the lake and saw 
a small island. He pushed the boat out into 
the water and rowed over to the island where 
he began to look around to see what sort of 
a place it was and what could be done next. 
There was plenty of fowl on the island, so 
with the aid of his gun and ammunition he 
was able to get all the food necessary. He 
138 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

found a cave in a rock which served for his 
home for four days. These four days seemed 
like four weeks to John. He felt perfectly 
safe, for there seemed to be no wild beasts 
about and he had plenty of food. It wasn’t 
fear that disturbed him, but a sense of loneli¬ 
ness that is hard to describe and almost im¬ 
possible for anyone who has not had such 
an experience to understand. There he was 
alone on an island, he knew not where, and 
it seemed as if he might never get back to 
his home again. There was much time for 
thinking, but under the circumstances clear 
thinking was difficult and his mind was in a 
dreadful state of confusion. 

Coming out of his cave on the fifth morn¬ 
ing of his stay on the island, John was sur¬ 
prised to see about twenty Indian Cannibals 
along the shore on the side of the island 
where he was living. They had a fire kindled 
and were dancing around it with wild ges¬ 
tures and figures. Here they had four white 
prisoners—two young men and two young 
women, whom they expected to kill and eat. 
Their dancing and screaming seemed to be 
an expression of joy in anticipation of the 
wonderful feast that they were soon to enjoy. 


139 


DARTING RAYS 

It took but a moment for John to understand 
the situation, and it stirred every drop of 
blood in his veins—this was no time for con¬ 
fused thoughts, four of his fellow men were 
in danger of being slaughtered and he must 
find a way to save them. He gathered up his 
guns and ammunition and silently made his 
way through the woods to get as near to the 
Cannibals as possible. Hiding behind the 
bushes, he could safely watch the actions of 
the savages. He could see that they had the 
prisoners lying bound on the ground, and 
that they were making ready to kill the first 
one. Filled with horror at the sight, he raised 
his gun, took aim and fired, killing one and 
wounding two. Hardly had the first shot 
gone forth before he threw down the gun 
and seized another one. Quickly he fired 
again at the wretches, and two more dropped. 
He continued the firing until ten of the Can¬ 
nibals were dead and several wounded. The 
few who were left unhurt were so frightened 
that they fled in terror, forgetting all about 
their prisoners. Now was John’s chance—he 
came out from his hiding place among the 
bushes to free the white men and women. 
He cut the ropes and loosed their hands and 


140 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

feet, but they were so weak that they could 
scarcely stand or speak. John gave them 
water to drink, which helped to revive them. 
In their weakened condition, they were un¬ 
able to say much, but the expression on their 
faces as they looked at John told him of their 
deep appreciation and gratitude better than 
words could have done. They were English 
people. John cared for them and fed them 
for several days until they were able to be 
about again. Then with renewed courage, 
they took the boat to the mainland and set 
out in search of Mallingaun or any town they 
could find. After several days of hardships, 
they arrived at Benares. 

One evening John saw a Hindu funeral 
procession. A cart carrying the body of a 
young man dressed in silk robes was drawn 
by an elephant. This cart was surrounded by 
men and women. A fair young lady dressed 
like a queen and surrounded by guards who 
were heavily armed followed the cart. Then 
came the priest and many men and women, 
all singing a kind of psalm and performing 
a religious ceremony. The procession moved 
slowly towards the forest, and when the 
songs had died away, John asked a by-stander 
141 


DARTING RAYS 

what it all meant. He was told that the 
young woman so beautifully dressed was the 
wife of the dead man, and that she would be 
burned alive at midnight with the body of 
her husband, according to the religious cus¬ 
tom of the tribe. John had heard and read 
about those barbarous customs, but it seemed 
hard to believe that they were still carried 
out and that he had been an eye witness to 
part of the ceremony. He knew that he was 
in India where such proceedings were consid¬ 
ered all right, but it was more than his young, 
American blood could stand and he said to 
himself: “I will save that woman/’ He knew 
that it was a bold move, full of difficulty, but 
he was ready to risk his life or liberty and 
followed the procession at a safe distance. 

They disappeared into the woods, but he 
could see their tracks and hear the cries of 
the fakirs, so he followed on. After about 
an hour, when they found a spot where they 
could be well concealed, they halted. As 
soon as night fell, John started to make a 
circle around their camp. He crept noise¬ 
lessly through the brush and in a few minutes 
was within the sight of the camp, which was 
lighted by the torches. He started around 


142 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

through the woods so as to approach the tent 
from the rear, and soon found himself at the 
bank of a stream. Here he found the ele¬ 
phant chained to a tree but the chain was not 
locked. About thirty yards from there he 
saw a pile of wood and on the top of the pile 
lay the corpse that was to be burned that 
night. He wondered if the young wife would 
also be put on this pile of wood, there to be 
burned alive with the body of her husband, 
and it made him more determined to take 
some action to help her. He measured the 
stream and looked over the cart and elephant. 
Then he made friends with the elephant by 
giving him some candy and peanuts that he 
happened to have in his pocket. He loosened 
the chain with which the elephant was fas¬ 
tened to the tree so that it could be removed 
in an instant. Then he went to the pile of 
wood and dragged down the dead body of 
the man. In about two minutes the corpse 
was floating down the stream and John was 
lying on the pile of wood covered with some 
of the garments of the dead man. In the 
meantime the Indians had been having a feast 
and John now heard lively singing mingled 
with the sound of the tambourines. Time 


143 


DARTING RAYS 

passed and the hour for the sacrifice arrived. 
The door of the tent was opened and the 
crowd began to move toward the wood pile. 
The young victim was placed beside John, 
supposedly the body of her husband. A torch 
was brought and the dry wood took fire very 
quickly, while the crowd danced and shouted. 
When the clouds of smoke rose to the top of 
the pile, John arose and raised the young lady 
up in his arms. Immediately the religious 
cries of the crowd changed to a cry of terror. 
These people were superstitious and easily 
frightened, and this strange sight was more 
than they could understand. Was it a ghost, 
or was the man not dead? Terror-stricken 
the fakirs fell to the ground and lay there 
face downward. John was quick to take ad¬ 
vantage of their position. He carried the 
young lady to the cart. Then he led the ele¬ 
phant down to the stream and into the water, 
throwing peanuts into the water a few yards 
ahead of the elephant. As the elephant 
started to move, he jumped into the cart and 
threw out more peanuts. In a few moments 
they were in the middle of the stream. The 
cart was made of wood and was very light, 
so it floated down the stream like a boat. The 


144 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

water reached up to the elephant’s back but 
he did not mind it as long as there were pea¬ 
nuts ahead of him. Soon they reached the 
opposite shore. By this time the Hindus had 
recovered from their fright and were down 
at the bank of the river, but John and the 
rescued lady were safe on the opposite shore 
and quickly made their escape through the 
woods in the darkness. After several days 
of traveling they arrived in Calcutta, where 
the young woman was free from danger. 

The spirit of adventure was with John and 
he again ventured into the jungles. Being 
alone and unprotected, it is not surprising 
that he was taken prisoner by the Kali tribe. 
They took him to their village and into a 
dirty hut, where they led him down a winding 
flight of stone steps on through a dark pas¬ 
sage and past a heavy door. It was not long 
before John realized that he was confined in 
a dungeon—he was in absolute darkness, not 
the kind of darkness one finds in a bedroom 
at night—it was the frightful darkness that 
will chill and crush the soul and body. There 
was no bed to lie upon, no chair—no piece 
of furniture whatsoever—nothing but the 
cold, wet ground. He was kept in this awful 
145 


DARTING RAYS 

place all night, and in the morning when he 
was taken out he was nervous and trembling 
violently. His captors paid no attention to 
his condition, but proceeded to pin him 
against the wall. With a leather belt drawn 
around his shoulders, and around two staples 
in the wall he was securely fastened. Then 
his arms were jammed against his sides by a 
straight waist-coat fastened with straps be¬ 
hind, the straps being drawn just as tightly 
as possible—so severely was he fastened that 
he was raised off the ground. A high leather 
collar squeezed his throat in its iron grasp. 
He suffered intensely from the cold and pain. 
This was a crucifixion without nails. One 
man was sent to watch him, in an hour an¬ 
other man came to relieve him, after another 
hour the second man was relieved and so on 
through the day. These men seemed to think 
that they had tiresome work guarding their 
prisoner but no thought of his suffering 
crossed their minds. Under extreme condi¬ 
tions, the human body proves itself strong— 
it seemed that the very pain John suffered 
and the resentment in his heart gave him un¬ 
natural power of resistance. But after six 
hours of this torture, the infernal machine 


146 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

that bound him conquered and he turned 
faint. The last thing he remembered was a 
body full of aching bones. He knew not how 
long it was before he came to consciousness 
again, but the first sensation he felt was one 
of intense pain from being flayed alive from 
the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. 

They had unstrapped him, stripped him of 
his clothes and scrubbed him with a hard 
brush as they would have scrubbed a floor. 
This brushing was continued until his flesh 
was as red as blood, and the blood flowed 
underneath bristles. Then his clothes were 
put on, over his sore, bleeding back, and he 
was violently flung back into the dungeon. 
All night he suffered, and in the morning the 
guards came for him and dragged him out 
with no sign of feeling. He was taken before 
the chief of the tribe and his daughter. Here 
he was given the choice between marrying 
the young daughter of the chief or being torn 
to pieces by a lion. John was very indignant 
over the treatment he had received and said 
that he would rather be given to a lion and 
be torn to pieces than be made one of their 
tribe. 

In the afternoon, John was taken to a 


147 


DARTING RAYS 

large arena. Hundreds of Hindoos, men, 
women and children were seated in a half 
circle around this arena. The chief and his 
daughter sat in the center of the throng. On 
the opposite side were two doors leading into 
two cages. John was told that one of the 
cages contained a lion and that a beautiful 
young woman was in the other cage. He 
was to be allowed the privilege of opening 
whichever door he choose. If he were for¬ 
tunate enough to open the door of the cage 
in which the young woman had been placed, 
he could claim her as his wife. On the other 
hand, if he opened the door of the cage con¬ 
taining the lion, he would be prey to the hun¬ 
gry beast. 

John knew enough of the Hindoos to 
know that the chiefs daughter would know 
which cage contained the lion, and that if 
given the chance she would signal for him to 
open the door of the lion’s cage, for she would 
rather see him devoured by the lion than in 
the arms of another woman. He turned and 
looked at the chief’s daughter, and just as he 
had expected she gave him a signal. But 
he did not open the door she wanted him to 
open. He went to the other and, just as he 


148 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

had expected, out stepped a beautiful young 
woman. The woman was immediately de¬ 
clared his wife, without even as much as ask¬ 
ing his consent. John felt that this was no 
marriage at all, but went quietly with her to 
her home, which was the largest and nicest 
house in the village. He was told her name— 
but it sounded to him something like rats 
running up a pipe—he could not pronounce 
or remember it. She was very fair and beau¬ 
tiful. Her skin was almost white, her eyes 
a dark brown and her features very regular. 
She was most attractive and seemed entirely 
satisfied with her husband—in fact she was 
very affectionate and loving. John was not 
the kind of a young man to fall in love with 
a pretty-faced Indian girl. He did not feel 
that he was married and thought it best to 
get away as quickly as possible. So he left 
her the very first night and went to Calcutta. 

By this time, John felt that he had enough 
experience in the jungles to last him for a 
little while, so he visited places of interest in 
and around the city. He went to the Kal- 
ighat Temple, the Botanical Gardens, the 
Zoo, the Native Quarters, the Public Build¬ 
ings, the Museum and Bazaars. He saw a pe- 
149 


DARTING RAYS 

culiar beach and many other interesting and 
fascinating scenes. 

From Calcutta, John went by rail to the 
Diamond Harbor, a distance of about thirty- 
five miles, where he took passage on a ship 
for Hong-Kong, China. The voyage was a 
most enjoyable one. After all his exciting 
experiences the ocean trip was most refresh¬ 
ing and invigorating. The decks of the ship 
were unusually large and he enjoyed the out- 
of-door games and sports. He was attracted 
by the gymnasium, plunge bath, excellent 
concerts, dances, bridge parties and all the 
interesting forms of entertainment furnished 
by the managers of the ship. 

John spent eleven days in China visiting 
several cities and many places of interest. The 
traveling was very interesting because of 
the different conveyances. He traveled by 
automobile, carriage, jinrikisha and train. He 
saw many interesting and queer Chinese 
cities. Some of the Peking buildings are a 
thousand years old. While he was out sight¬ 
seeing his spirit of adventure led him into 
all sorts of places and situations. Being a 
stranger in a strange land and unfamiliar 
with the laws of the country, he was brought 
150 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

in court several times on minor charges. His 
curiosity drew him farther off at times than 
he really intended to go. One day he was 
seized with a desire to see the interior of a 
certain Chinese Temple. Not knowing that 
it was forbidden for Christians to enter that 
particular temple, and thinking no harm, he 
went in like a simple tourist. He was lost in 
admiration of the beautiful ornamentation 
that met his eyes at the entrance to the 
temple, when suddenly he was seized by two 
enraged Chinamen, who began to beat him. 
John was quick with his fists and knocked 
both of the men down. Then he rushed out 
of the temple only to be arrested by a police¬ 
man and placed in jail. 

The next morning John was taken before 
the judge and fined a small sum of money, 
which he paid. 

Free once more, John started exploring 
along a small stream, where he came upon a 
curious sort of vault in v/hich were placed the 
remains of the dead of a certain Chinese 
tribe. This vault was built very much in the 
form of a shed. It was built of forked posts 
set in the ground, across which were placed 
large poles and boards that formed the roof. 

151 


DARTING RAYS 

The sides of the vault were closed by rough 
boards nailed to the posts. Inside the vault 
he saw dead bodies wrapped in robes and 
sheets lying in rows on boards, and in the 
center was a large pile of bones and human 
skulls. Relatives of the deceased brought of¬ 
ferings such as skins, blankets, robes and all 
kinds of trinkets, and a small canoe for the 
spirit of the dead to ride in. John noticed 
that the members of this tribe had artificially 
flattened heads, women as well as men. The 
way this was accomplished was by binding a 
board on the forehead and one on the back of 
an infant’s head in such manner that it would 
force the head up into a flat shape. 

Near this stream and the curious vault 
was a Chinese village of which he was obliged 
to steer clear, for it was infested with fleas. 
Then John went back to Hong-Kong, where 
he remained a few days to rest. Hong-Kong 
has some first class hotels, whose servants 
and cooks have the knack of keeping you 
guessing. They are very interesting and 
charming. 

From China John went to Japan, where 
he made tours to many cities, outlying vil¬ 
lages, and to all the principal points of in- 


152 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

terest. Some of the cities have queer old 
houses, narrow and winding streets of un¬ 
usually attractive local color. He visited the 
Nikko temples and the Buddha, the great art 
works of the Japanese. He made a trip to 
Tokio by electric railway. In Tokio, which 
is a beautiful place John visited the palace of 
the Mikado, which is a building of great 
splendor, also the public buildings, the parks, 
the principal hotels, bazaars, and various 
other places of interest. He spent six days in 
the city of Yokohama, which is one of the 
most picturesque and interesting cities of the 
world, with its most beautiful former harbor, 
being remarkable for the number and va¬ 
riety of its sailing vessels. The bathing 
beach of Yokohama is something to marvel 
at. There is a large and modern bath¬ 
house with every facility, which makes bath¬ 
ing a thing of joy. Words fail to describe 
the bathing scenes at Yokohama. It also has 
the most beautiful sea gardens in the world. 
During John’s six days’ stay in Yokohama, 
he visited the parks, public buildings, the mu¬ 
seums with its wonderful exhibits, temples, 
the shops with their wonderful display of 
skilled workmanship in bronze, wood, porce- 


153 


DARTING RAYS 

lain and charming silk embroideries, and 
various other points of interest. 

John boarded a steamer at Yokohama for 
San Francisco, Calif. The passengers had an 
opportunity to go ashore at the ports of 
Honolulu and Hilo, in order to see the sights. 
John took a trip to Kilauea lava, one of the 
most wonderful and greatest spectacles in the 
world. The Hawaiian dancing was very 
amusing and interesting. The Pacific ocean 
was unusually calm. The steamer was pro¬ 
vided with every modern comfort, which 
made the twenty-four days’ voyage seem only 
like twelve days. John finally arrived at the 
Golden Gate of San Francisco. He was very 
happy when he set foot on the American con¬ 
tinent again. He could see steamers of all 
nations anchored in the bay of the Golden 
Gate. 

There were also products of commerce, 
which extend to all the islands of the Pacific 
ocean, and to Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chili and 
to Europe, accumulated there. 

He ordered a cab and made a trip through 
the principal parts of the city. He did not 
care to visit the Chinese and Japanese 
quarters, for he had seen enough of that ele¬ 
ment during his tour. 


154 


JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 

He found the American hotels and res¬ 
taurants very good and comfortable. He was 
happy to be served by Negro and white wait¬ 
ers. A most delightful one-day trip is that 
from San Francisco up Mount Tamalpars on 
the most crooked railroad in the country. 
Turn after turn is made as new rock walls 
come into view. Rocks extend over the track 
in places and many other things come into 
view as the road winds over picturesque 
bridges, rising and climbing until it has left 
the bay and the city thousands of feet below. 
The summit of Mount Tamalpars commands 
a remarkable view of San Francisco, its bay 
and the surrounding mineral springs, lakes 
and romantic resorts. 

John went to the peak of Mount Whitney 
in California, the tallest peak in the United 
States— 15,000 feet high. In the forests he 
saw some of the largest trees in the world. 
Some were thirty-seven feet in diameter and 
300 feet high. These massive trees present 
one of the beautiful sights in forests. 

After spending two days in San Francisco, 
he boarded a train for Chicago and went by 
the way of Salt Lake City, Denver and Oma¬ 
ha. He made short stops at those cities. In 


155 


DARTING RAYS 

Salt Lake City, the Mormon Elders wanted 
him to stay and marry about a half dozen 
girls, which did not appeal to him. It seemed 
to him terrible to have to guide so many wives 
at once through the Mormon paradise. 

After five months, two weeks and three 
days tour around the world, John Meyers 
finally arrived in Chicago. Those five months 
away from the “Windy City” (his home) 
were the finest and best five months he had 
ever spent. They were worth more to him 
than all the rest of his past life put together. 

One might imagine how very happy his 
father was to see his son and to know that 
the money he had spent on his journey had 
been a good investment, as the trip had made 
a man of John. 


156 


A 

FEW HUMOROUS 
SKETCHES 





































Hallucination 

Johnson, while walking on the street sud¬ 
denly fell to the sidewalk unconscious. He 
was taken to the hospital, where the surgeon, 
after looking Johnson over, said, that unless 
an operation was performed immediately the 
man would surely die. Consequently John¬ 
son was operated on at once. The learned 
surgeon discovered something on the inside 
of Johnson, which he thought was a tumor. 
Whatever it was, no one ever knew, for the 
surgeon by mistake did not remove it, but 
instead he cut out the man’s heart and 
placed it in a glass tube for Johnson to see 
when he was able to look at it. There was 
not a conscious moment between the time in 
which Johnson fell to the sidewalk and after 
the operation had been completed. After the 
effects of the ether had worn off, Johnson, 


159 


DARTING RAYS 

while gazing about the room, observed a 
nurse standing at the other end of the room. 
Johnson mistook the nurse for an angel, for 
he was under the impression that he had 
passed away, and that he was now in heaven, 
especially so when he saw the pretty nurse 
with what he thought were wings. In those 
days it was customary for nurses to wear 
great puffs upon their shoulders, which re¬ 
sembled wings, especially to a man with dim 
eyes. After some moments of hesitation, 
Johnson in a feeble voice said: “Where am 
I?” You are in a hospital,” kindly answered 
the nurse. She then told him of what had 
taken place during the time of his uncon¬ 
sciousness, also telling him that the surgeon, 
in order to save his life, removed a tumor. 
“A tumor!” exclaimed Johnson. “Yes,” re¬ 
plied the kind nurse, at the same time point¬ 
ing her finger toward the table upon which 
the doctor had placed the tube containing the 
supposed tumor. The man looked in that di¬ 
rection, but it was not his heart that he saw, 
but a pet monkey which at that instant 
jumped up on the table. Johnson, after look¬ 
ing intently at the monkey for some minutes, 
discovered a marvelous family resemblance, 


160 


HALLUCINATION 

and in a groaning voice addressed the mon¬ 
key, which he thought had been removed 
from him. “My dear child, you are very wel¬ 
come whether you are a boy or a girl. I can 
see by your movements that you are very 
spry and well, but I am very sorry to say that 
your mother is a very sick man. 


161 



“Donkey’s Eggs” 

A farmer while going to town in his 
wagon, drawn by a pair of mules, met a 
Dutchman who had just come across. He 
had never seen an animal of that kind and 
stopped the farmer and asked him what the 
animals were called. The farmer very kindly 
told the Dutchman that they were called 
donkeys. 

The Dutchman then observed on the 
farmer's wagon some pumpkins, which he 
thought were eggs. He then asked the farm¬ 
er what kind of eggs those were, pointing to 
the pumpkins. The farmer did not care to 
get into an argument with the Dutchman, 
therefore told him that they were donkey's 
eggs. The Dutchman then inquired as to 
whether they would be hatched in the same 
manner as chicken eggs. The farmer, who 


163 


DARTING RAYS 

was getting tired of being asked so many 
foolish questions, said yes. The Dutchman 
thought that it would be a good way to ac¬ 
quire a team of donkeys, so he purchased two 
pumpkins from the farmer. Inasmuch as the 
Dutchman had no home or place to put the 
pumpkins, also being minus a setting hen, he 
carried the pumpkins in the country. There 
he discovered a wooded hill, which he 
thought would be the proper place for the 
eggs to hatch undisturbed. Consequently, he 
climbed the hill, which was very hard work, 
inasmuch as he had such a heavy load to 
carry. However, he did not mind his burden, 
because he had a vision of a nice team of 
donkeys. He finally reached the summit of 
the hill, where he found a suitable spot on the 
south and sunny side, where he made a nest 
with dry grass and leaves. He then placed 
the pumpkins in the nest and crouched him¬ 
self down in a setting hen’s position with his 
arms spread out, so as to cover the supposed 
eggs. 

Although the Dutchman was in a sitting 
posture,he eventually got tired, and in shift¬ 
ing from one position to the other, jarred the 
pumpkins, which rolled down hill and struck 


164 


DONKEY’S EGGS 

a rock. This split them into many pieces. At 
the same instant, a pair of rabbits, which had 
been in hiding near the rock became fright¬ 
ened and ran down the hill. The Dutchman, 
upon seeing the rabbits thought that they 
were his young donkeys and started in pur¬ 
suit, shouting at the same time “Do not flee 
from me my children, I am your mother, I 
love you and will protect you dear little 
things from all danger and harm” 


165 















The Irishman and the 
Big Swede 

William MacDonald, while examining his 
gun, accidently shot himself in the foot, and 
some one circulated a false story that there 
was a woman in the case. For the good name 
of the town, about a dozen people went to the 
man’s home to investigate, but their visit was 
cut short by the wounded man’s neighbor, a 
big Swede. Addressing the visitors, the 
Swede shouted: “Hey! what youse want 
here! Mine friends she William much hurt 
and bad sick und she say youse ask him much 
question which is no business yours. I to 
want know what youse is doin’ here, all youse 
mens and wimmens.” The Swede’s big blue 
eyes went searchingly from one to another 
while he continued: “I dinks I takes better 
you mens and vipe up the floors mit you—dar 
167 


DARTING RAYS 

wimmens can lettle mover to one side so’s 
day makes room more plenty. I tak yous 
mens alltogedder on once bunch or one at 
once time—hows you likes/’ As he took a 
step forward all the men and women hurried¬ 
ly left the house. The Swede followed, say¬ 
ing: “I dinks I help youse a bit,” and grab¬ 
bing the last and slowest man by the shoulder 
he shouted: “Mine friend, youse I knows 
and ebery bodies knows you as de laziest fel¬ 
low in towns, so 1 will help along you sure”— 
and the big Swede threw him in the car like 
a bag of oats. All the others needed no help. 
The Swede and his friend were left in peace 
ever after, as far as the meddling neighbors 
were concerned. 


168 


Hansmichel Nixcomeraus, the 
Bully of the Town 

One time while summer was approaching, 
Hansmichel Nixcomeraus, the bully of the 
town, began to long for fresh country air. 
Therefore he ventured beyond the city limits 
one day for the first time in his life. In order 
to be able to take his wife Ulscha and their 
children, which, numbered a bakers dozen 
(13), he hired a truck. Well, they all 
dropped unceremoniously in on a good na- 
tured farmer on Saturday evening and 
stayed over Sunday. The hospitable farmer 
took them to a country church on Sunday 
morning. In the afternoon he showed his 
guests the farm and stock. As they came 
upon a few calves Mrs. Nixcomeraus re¬ 
marked: “Oh, what cut little cowlets.” 
“They are not cowlets, they are bullets,” 
169 


DARTING RAYS 

kindly said the farmer. “Are they real bul¬ 
lets,” asked Mr. Nixcomeraus. “Yes, they 
are,” returned the farmer, “and I have two 
big ones in the barn that would knock the 
stuffin out of you or any one else in a hurry 
if they are turned loose. Come and I will 
show them to you people.” “No, no,” said 
the bully with a trembling voice, while his 
body was shaking like a leaf. “We must be 
going home now.” 

After loading up his family in a hurry they 
started for home. Now, after the tiresome 
walk on the farm and from inhaling so much 
fresh air, they all felt hungry on their way 
home, so they stopped at a restaurant. Final¬ 
ly, after much work, the waiter had them all 
seated around a large table with the proud 
lord (father) at the head of the table. The 
waiter gave the lord a printed bill-of-fare. As 
the bully could not read and did not want to 
appear green, he pointed to several items and 
said: “Bring us them.” The waiter, with 
three assistants, appeared with a bowl of veg¬ 
etable soup, a cup of tea and cocoa for each 
person. Now Nixcomeraus, in his disappoint¬ 
ment, called the waiter and said: “Bring us 
that” (pointing to two more items on the bill- 
170 


HANSMICHEL NIXCOMERAUS 

of-fare.) This time they all got a dish of gravy 
and coffee. Through the bully’s ignorance 
they missed all the good things which were 
on the bill-of-fare, such as meats, vegetables, 
pies, cakes and many other things. Nixcom- 
eraus went home hungry, cursing, swearing 
and vowing that his first trip to the country 
would also be his last. 


171 




Wells of Mirth and the 
Lost Glove 

0 R. WEBSTER of Milwaukee does not 
possess a great deal of wealth, yet he 
possesses the most precious jewels on 
earth, for he is blessed with a family which 
cannot be bought with gold or diamonds. 

His pretty and good wife is also a good 
and kind mother. Mr. and Mrs. Webster have 
two sons (James and Joseph), and two 
daughters (Lorraine and Loretta). They are 
two pairs of twins, as nice, pretty and healthy 
looking as anyone can wish for. There is not 
a selfish, self-loving or a reckless one in the 
Tommy Webster family. 

The children are all particularly attrac¬ 
tive, strong and athletic. Lorraine and Lo¬ 
retta are very beautiful and charming young 
women, but Lorraine’s beauty is of the more 


173 



DARTING RAYS 

attractive kind. It is a beauty with the fresh¬ 
ness of spring flowers; a beauty which one 
can see now and then in children and young 
girls. She is just coming into blossom of 
young womanhood, but yet her beauty is 
that of a child. 

She has missed a hardening process which 
some girls of her age undergo in a large city. 
Lorraine possesses kindness, tenderness, 
childish sweetness, and everything which is 
good, and she is amazingly happy. Her slen¬ 
der face is wholly in keeping with her deli¬ 
cate girlish features, good manners and 
humor. She has a smooth, clear brow and 
her skin is healthy and fresh like a pink 
spring flower. She has deep blue eyes and 
a delightful smile which goes down inside 
one and touches a tender spot. 

One night she and her brother, James, 
went to a grand ball. They found themselves 
in a large and most beautifully decorated 
hall, which was sufficiently suited for the 
affair and plan. The assemblage was a large 
and fashionable one. During the evening 
everyone had a wonderful time. There were 
many beautiful and interesting costumes in 
the ballroom, but Miss Lorraine Webster had 


174 


WELLS OF MIRTH 

the most beautiful costume of them all. She 
was the belle of the ball. 

Among the assemblage in the ballroom 
was a wealthy and attractive young man by 
the name of Jimmie, who was much amazed 
when he saw her, for such a beautiful girl 
as Lorraine, in all the glory of her young 
womanhood, he had never seen before. She 
also was amazed when she saw how hand¬ 
some, clever and refined he was. He was tall, 
had perfect features and becoming dark 
curly hair. He had a rare smile which went 
straight to the heart, he had piercing brown 
eyes, which expressed kindness, warmth and 
sympathy. They drew the interest of others 
and won admiration. No wonder she ad¬ 
mired him and became so attracted by him 
that she almost forgot the promise she had 
made to her mother: to be home at the hour 
of midnight. 

Lorraine was always a good and obedient 
girl. She never stayed out after twelve 
o’clock at night, so when she heard the clock 
in the church steeple strike the hour of mid¬ 
night, she ran out of the ballroom and hur¬ 
riedly went home. In her haste she dropped 
her glove outside of the wardrobe. Jimmie, 
175 


DARTING RAYS 

who had fallen in love with Lorraine, fol¬ 
lowed her out of the dance hall. He wanted 
to speak to Lorraine, and if agreeable, take 
her home in his automobile. Jimmie saw 
Lorraine drop her glove and while he went 
to pick it up, Lorraine had disappeared in 
the crowd. He searched high and low for 
her but did not see her. Finally he vowed 
that he would find her, his beloved one, and 
find her before many days had passed, and 
if she would have him, he would marry her 
in the near future. As he did not know her 
name or address, he deemed it necessary to 
send someone with the lost glove in order to 
find the rightful owner. 

The following day Margaret, Jimmie’s 
faithful servant, a middle-aged woman, went 
from house to house in search of Lorraine. 
Margaret tried the glove on the hand of every 
young woman she met. Some of the girls 
eagerly tried on the glove when they learned 
that she had been sent out by Jimmie, the 
young millionaire, to find the young woman 
whose hand the glove fitted. But to the girls’ 
disappointment, the small, rare glove would 
not fit. Hours and days passed without any 
result. Finally, along toward evening of the 
176 


WELLS OF MIRTH 

seventh day of the search for her, Margaret 
came to the home of Lorraine, but she and 
her sister, Loretta, were not at home. 

Mrs. Webster did not recognize the glove, 
neither did she know that Lorraine had lost 
one. Cousin Jennie, who was visiting at the 
Webster home, took the glove into an adjoin¬ 
ing room, where she fussed with her hand 
and the glove until she got it on. The young, 
thoughtless girl Jennie was happy, thinking 
how lovely it would be to marry Jimmie the 
millionaire. 

When Margaret saw the glove on Jennie’s 
hand, she was very glad to think that her 
tiresome job was at an end. She phoned to 
her master at once. A few minutes later a 
large automobile drew up in front of the 
Webster home. Although Jimmie saw the 
glove on Jennie’s hand, which it seemed to 
fit, he knew that she was not the girl he was 
looking for. 

The Webster family had a parrot which 
was an extraordinarily smart bird. It knew 
everyone of the Webster family by name. 
Polly also knew each one’s clothes and 
gloves. Polly had seen Jennie fuss with the 
glove, which he recognized as that of Lor- 
177 


DARTING RAYS 

raine, which was rare and fancy. The bird 
also was a great talker; it could say almost 
anything, so while Jennie was making be¬ 
lieve how nicely the glove fitted, Polly was 
saying: 

“Girly my love, 

On your hand, 

I see Lorraine’s glove.” 

At that moment Lorraine and her sister, 
Loretta, came into the room. Lorraine and 
Jimmie recognized each other at once. One 
might imagine what a surprise it was to 
everyone in the house. When the facts in re¬ 
gard to Jimmie, Lorraine and her glove be¬ 
came known, Jennie and Margaret were 
speechless. 

One month later they were married. 
Everyone went to the church to attend the 
wedding and the assemblage was a large and 
fashionable one. The event was undoubt¬ 
edly the most brilliant one ever known. 

The bride was charming in her gown of 
ivory satin and veil of attractive lace. Jim¬ 
mie now dresses his wife in the most beau¬ 
tiful Parisian gowns, bedecks her with the 
most gorgeous diamonds. 


178 


WELLS OF MIRTH 

For a bridal gift he gave her a magnifi¬ 
cent mansion, which is set in beautiful 
grounds on one of the most wonderful boule¬ 
vards, where they are still living very happily. 


THE END. 












































































































































































































































































































































































































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